How do I undo 'git add' before commit?

Answer 1

Git has commands for every action imaginable, but it needs extensive knowledge to get things right and because of that it is counter-intuitive at best...

What you did before:

• Changed a file and used git add ., or git add <file>.

What you want:

• Remove the file from the index, but keep it versioned and left with uncommitted changes in working copy:

  git reset head <file>
  

• Reset the file to the last state from HEAD, undoing changes and removing them from the index:

  # Think `svn revert <file>` IIRC.
  git reset HEAD <file>
  git checkout <file>
  
  # If you have a `<branch>` named like `<file>`, use:
  git checkout -- <file>
  

  This is needed since git reset --hard HEAD won't work with single files.

• Remove <file> from index and versioning, keeping the un-versioned file with changes in working copy:

  git rm --cached <file>
  

• Remove <file> from working copy and versioning completely:

  git rm <file>
  

Answer 2

git remove or git rm can be used for this, with the --cached flag. Try:

git help rm

Answer 3

git reset filename.txt  

Will remove a file named filename.txt from the current index, the "about to be committed" area, without changing anything else.

Answer 4

The question is not clearly posed. The reason is that git add has two meanings:

1. adding a new file to the staging area, then undo with git rm --cached file.
2. adding a modified file to the staging area, then undo with git reset HEAD file.

If in doubt, use

git reset HEAD file

Because it does the expected thing in both cases.

Warning: if you do git rm --cached file on a file that was modified (a file that existed before in the repository), then the file will be removed on git commit! It will still exist in your file system, but if anybody else pulls your commit, the file will be deleted from their work tree.

git status will tell you if the file was a new file or modified:

On branch master
Changes to be committed:
  (use "git reset HEAD <file>..." to unstage)

    new file:   my_new_file.txt
    modified:   my_modified_file.txt

Answer 5

Maybe Git has evolved since you posted your question.

$> git --version
git version 1.6.2.1

Now, you can try:

git reset HEAD .

This should be what you are looking for.

Answer 6

To reset every file in a particular folder (and its subfolders), you can use the following command:

git reset *