What's the difference between HEAD^ and HEAD~ in Git?

Question

When I specify an ancestor commit object in Git, I\'m confused between HEAD^ and HEAD~.

Both have a \"numbered\" version like HEAD^3<

Answer 1

It is worth noting that git also has a syntax for tracking "from-where-you-came"/"want-to-go-back-now" - for example, HEAD@{1} will reference the place from where you jumped to new commit location.

Basically HEAD@{} variables capture the history of HEAD movement, and you can decide to use a particular head by looking into reflogs of git using the command git reflog.

Example:

0aee51f HEAD@{0}: reset: moving to HEAD@{5}
290e035 HEAD@{1}: reset: moving to HEAD@{7}
0aee51f HEAD@{2}: reset: moving to HEAD@{3}
290e035 HEAD@{3}: reset: moving to HEAD@{3}
9e77426 HEAD@{4}: reset: moving to HEAD@{3}
290e035 HEAD@{5}: reset: moving to HEAD@{3}
0aee51f HEAD@{6}: reset: moving to HEAD@{3}
290e035 HEAD@{7}: reset: moving to HEAD@{3}
9e77426 HEAD@{8}: reset: moving to HEAD@{3}
290e035 HEAD@{9}: reset: moving to HEAD@{1}
0aee51f HEAD@{10}: reset: moving to HEAD@{4}
290e035 HEAD@{11}: reset: moving to HEAD^
9e77426 HEAD@{12}: reset: moving to HEAD^
eb48179 HEAD@{13}: reset: moving to HEAD~
f916d93 HEAD@{14}: reset: moving to HEAD~
0aee51f HEAD@{15}: reset: moving to HEAD@{5}
f19fd9b HEAD@{16}: reset: moving to HEAD~1
290e035 HEAD@{17}: reset: moving to HEAD~2
eb48179 HEAD@{18}: reset: moving to HEAD~2
0aee51f HEAD@{19}: reset: moving to HEAD@{5}
eb48179 HEAD@{20}: reset: moving to HEAD~2
0aee51f HEAD@{21}: reset: moving to HEAD@{1}
f916d93 HEAD@{22}: reset: moving to HEAD@{1}
0aee51f HEAD@{23}: reset: moving to HEAD@{1}
f916d93 HEAD@{24}: reset: moving to HEAD^
0aee51f HEAD@{25}: commit (amend): 3rd commmit
35a7332 HEAD@{26}: checkout: moving from temp2_new_br to temp2_new_br
35a7332 HEAD@{27}: commit (amend): 3rd commmit
72c0be8 HEAD@{28}: commit (amend): 3rd commmit

An example could be that I did local-commits a->b->c->d and then I went back discarding 2 commits to check my code - git reset HEAD~2 - and then after that I want to move my HEAD back to d - git reset HEAD@{1}.

Answer 2

• HEAD~ specifies the first parent on a "branch"

• HEAD^ allows you to select a specific parent of the commit

An Example:

If you want to follow a side branch, you have to specify something like

master~209^2~15

Answer 3

TLDR

~ is what you want most of the time, it references past commits to the current branch

^ references parents (git-merge creates a 2nd parent or more)

A~ is always the same as A^
A~~ is always the same as A^^, and so on
A~2 is not the same as A^2 however,
because ~2 is shorthand for ~~
while ^2 is not shorthand for anything, it means the 2nd parent

Answer 4

~ this means parent.

^ if it has parents of two or more, like merge commit, we can select second of parent or another.

so if just one thing like (HEAD~ or HEAD^), it has same results.