Undoing the Git add command

Current Location：Home > Learning > OPERATING SYSTEM > Git >

Git Docker

Undoing the Git add command

Author：JIYIK Last Updated：2025/04/01 Views：

This article discusses removing files that have been added to the index for commit. When you want to remove files from the index, there are two commands you can use.

Let’s explore each of them with a practical example.

Undo Git Add Command

To simulate a situation where we mistakenly add a file for commit, we will edit a file in our repository and stage it for commit using the git add command.

$ git status

git status after git add

Now that our file is on our index, how do we un-index it?

Your first option is Git's suggestion. You can use git restore --staged<file>the command as shown below.

$ git restore --staged Load.txt

Let's check our indexes.

$ git status

git status after git restore

We have git restore --staged<file>successfully unstaged the Load.txt file from our index using the command. What happens when you omit --staged ?

From git restorethe documentation, we can conclude that running git restore Load.txtwill restore our working tree and discard the changes in the staged files.

Let's look at the second approach. We will stage our file again.

$ git add Load.txt

We can git resetunstage the Load.txt file using the command as shown below.

$ git reset Load.txt

Let's check our indexes.

$ git status

git status after git reset

Our files are no longer staged for commit.

In summary, Git allows us to unstage files that have been staged for commit. We can do this using the git unstage command with the --staged flag git resetor git restorethe git unstage command.

Previous：Pull and update a file in Git

Next：Cherry-Pick multiple commits in Git

For reprinting, please send an email to 1244347461@qq.com for approval. After obtaining the author's consent, kindly include the source as a link.

Article URL：

JIYIK CN >