Undo without losing work · Lesson 9 of 15

Restore and unstage

Restore a working file or remove it from staging without moving history.

9 minutes2 games

git restore file copies the staged version back to the working tree, discarding unstaged edits. git restore --staged file removes a change from staging while keeping it in the file. Neither moves HEAD or deletes commits.

Last commit

Staging

Working tree

restore copies backward

Git

git init -q -b main
echo "safe" > note.txt
git add note.txt
git commit -q -m "Save note"
echo "mistake" > note.txt
git status -s
git restore note.txt
cat note.txt

If you added something by mistake, use restore --staged first; the edit remains in the working tree. --source other-branch file retrieves one file from a chosen reference without switching the whole branch.

Quick question

Remove a file from staging but keep its edit. Use?

Exercise

Commit good, change the file to bad, restore it, then print it.

Expected output: good

Git

git init -q -b main
echo "good" > app.txt
git add app.txt
git commit -q -m "Good"
echo "bad" > app.txt
cat app.txt

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