Using a public repo, I want to get my master branch back to a certain commit from the past. I have reviewed the options and the best thing for me looks to be a simple checkout t
git stash may be the quickest way to clean up the working tree.
and then git checkout -b $newbranch $commit-sha1-you-want to create a branch you are going to work with.
after all your work's done, git stash pop to restore the working tree.