How do I discard unstaged changes in Git?

When working with Git, it’s common to make edits you later decide not to keep. This raises the question: “How do I discard unstaged changes in Git?” Unstaged changes are modifications in your working directory that haven’t been added to the staging area yet. Fortunately, Git offers simple ways to remove them.

Discard Changes in a Single File

 If you only want to discard changes in one file:

 git checkout -- filename

 Or, in modern Git versions:

 git restore filename

 This reverts the file back to its last committed version.

Discard All Unstaged Changes

 To remove changes across your entire working directory:

 git restore .

 Or using the older command:

 git checkout -- .

Discard Untracked Files Too

 If you also want to delete new, untracked files (not yet staged or committed):

 git clean -fd

 Be careful—this permanently deletes untracked files and directories.

Safety Tip:

 Always double-check before discarding, as these changes cannot be recovered unless backed up or stashed. If you’re unsure, consider using:

 git stash

 This temporarily saves your changes without committing them.

Key Takeaway:

 Use git restore (or git checkout -- in older versions) to discard unstaged changes safely. For complete cleanup, combine it with git clean—but use caution to avoid losing important files.