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Git Destructive Operations and Recovering Lost Work
Posted on September 1, 2020 in Git, GitHub by Matt Jennings

Local Destructive Operations

• git checkout -- <file>
  If the file is present in the staging area, it’ll be overwritten.
• git reset --hard
  Will overwrite changes that re staged and in the working area.
• Unless changes are stashed, there’s no way of getting them back!
• Tip: use git stash --include-untracked to include working area changes in your stash.

Remote Destructive Operations

• There are many operations that can rewrite history:
  • rebase
  • amend
  • reset
• If you code is hosted or shared, never run:
  git push -f

ORIG_HEAD to Undo a Merge

• Use ORIG_HEAD to undo mergers
• git reset --merge ORIG_HEAD
• Use --merge flag to preserver any uncommited changes