How do I revert all local changes in Git managed project to previous state?

11    Asked by johnha_8935 in Devops , Asked on Aug 18, 2025

How can you revert all local changes in a Git-managed project to its previous state, and what commands help you discard uncommitted modifications? Knowing this is essential when you want to reset your workspace and sync it back to a clean version.

Answered by Juiako

Reverting all local changes in a Git-managed project is a common need when you want to discard your modifications and go back to a clean state. Depending on whether your changes are staged, unstaged, or untracked, Git provides different commands to handle each case.

Ways to Revert Local Changes:

Discard unstaged changes (modified files)

 If you’ve edited files but haven’t staged them yet, you can use:

   git checkout -- 

 Or to discard all files at once:

   git checkout -- .

Unstage files but keep changes

 If you accidentally staged files (git add), but want to unstage without losing edits:

   git reset 

Remove all local changes (reset to last commit)

 To completely discard both staged and unstaged changes and go back to the last committed state:

   git reset --hard

Delete untracked files/folders

 If you created new files not tracked by Git, use:

   git clean -fd

Key Points:

  • git reset --hard is the fastest way to revert your working directory to the latest commit.
  • Be careful—this permanently removes changes that are not committed.
  • Always double-check with git status before running cleanup commands.

In short, you can revert all local changes by combining git reset --hard and git clean -fd. This restores your project to a clean state, just like the last committed version.



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