Rollback a Git merge

Rolling back a Git merge can be necessary when something goes wrong or if you merged the wrong branch by mistake. Don’t worry—Git gives you a few ways to undo the merge depending on whether it was committed or not.

 If the merge is not yet committed:

You can easily cancel the merge using:

  git merge --abort

• This restores your working directory to the state before the merge.
  
• Only works if there are no staged changes.
  

Alternatively, you can use:

  git reset --hard HEAD

This discards all changes and resets the branch to the last commit.

Warning: Any unsaved work will be lost!

 If the merge was already committed:

You’ll need to undo the merge commit using git reset or git revert.

To remove the merge commit and all changes:

  git reset --hard HEAD~1

• This will roll back the entire merge as if it never happened.
  
• Use with caution—especially on shared branches.
  

To revert the merge commit safely (preserves history):

  git revert -m 1 

• -m 1 tells Git which parent to keep.
  
• Ideal for undoing merges on shared/public branches.
  

 Quick Tips:

• Always make sure to commit or stash your current changes before resetting.
  
• Use git log to identify the merge commit hash if needed.
  
• For safety, create a backup branch before rolling anything back.