How do I delete unpushed git commits?

Question

I accidentally committed to the wrong branch. How do I delete that commit?

Answer 1

Don't delete it: for just one commit git cherry-pick is enough.

But if you had several commits on the wrong branch, that is where git rebase --onto shines:

Suppose you have this:

 x--x--x--x <-- master
           \
            -y--y--m--m <- y branch, with commits which should have been on master

, then you can mark master and move it where you would want to be:

 git checkout master
 git branch tmp
 git checkout y
 git branch -f master

 x--x--x--x <-- tmp
           \
            -y--y--m--m <- y branch, master branch

, reset y branch where it should have been:

 git checkout y
 git reset --hard HEAD~2 # ~1 in your case, 
                         # or ~n, n = number of commits to cancel

 x--x--x--x <-- tmp
           \
            -y--y--m--m <- master branch
                ^
                |
                -- y branch

, and finally move your commits (reapply them, making actually new commits)

 git rebase --onto tmp y master
 git branch -D tmp


 x--x--x--x--m'--m' <-- master
           \
            -y--y <- y branch