Creating Local Repositories with Linear History - Git Recipes - page 88

$ git reset --hard abda
The command $ git l prints the same results as in Listing 3-6 . The working dir-
ectory contains all the files created in Recipes 3-3 and 3-4.
Caution Recipe 3-5 clearly shows that the database stored in .git/objects and
the history of the repository are not the same thing. After the $ git reset command
some revisions are removed from the history but they are still available in the database.
The history of the repository is only a subset of all the information available in the data-
base. To obtain something from the database, you need a valid name.
How It Works
The history of the repository can be displayed as a list of revisions. We can use $ git
log --pretty=oneline or the alias $ git l . As you already know, every revi-
sion is identified by its unique name. To restore the working directory to one of the re-
visions you can use:
$ git reset --hard [REVISION]
The command performs the following two operations:
• It resets the state of the working directory to the specified revision, which
means that the contents of all the files and directories are restored to ex-
actly the same snapshot as was saved in the revision.
• It removes from the history all the revisions that were created after speci-
fied revision.
If you want to restore the original state of the repository, as it was before the $ git
reset command, you have to remember the name of the latest revision or alternat-
ively you can use reflog.
3-6. Restoring revisions with git checkout