Common Git Mistakes & Fixes

1. "I committed to the wrong branch!"

You were working on a new feature, but you forgot to run git checkout -b new-feature and accidentally committed directly to main!

The Fix:

# Move your commit to a new branch
git branch new-feature
# Reset main back by one commit (but keep the changes on new-feature)
git reset HEAD~1 --hard
# Switch to your new branch
git checkout new-feature

2. "Oh no, there's a typo in my last commit message!"

You wrote git commit -m "fxied login button". It happens to the best of us!

The Fix: Use the --amend flag.

git commit --amend -m "fixed login button"

Note: Only do this if you haven't pushed to GitHub yet. If you have, you'll need to force push git push -f.

3. "I want to undo my last commit (but keep the code!)"

You committed too early and realized you still have one more file to add to that commit.

The Fix: Do a "soft" reset. This deletes the commit, but keeps the files modified on your computer.

git reset HEAD~1 --soft

Now you can make your changes, run git add ., and commit again.

4. "My code is a total mess. Just delete my changes and go back to the last commit."

You tried a new approach, it failed spectacularly, and you just want to revert every file back to exactly how it was 30 minutes ago.

The Fix: Do a "hard" reset.

git reset --hard HEAD

5. "I have merge conflicts and I'm terrified!"

You ran git pull and saw the dreaded: CONFLICT (content): Merge conflict in file.js

The Fix: Open the file in your code editor (like VS Code). You will see weird arrows in your code:

<<<<<<< HEAD
const color = "blue";
=======
const color = "red";
>>>>>>> incoming-branch

VS Code normally gives you buttons above this block saying "Accept Current Change" or "Accept Incoming Change". Click the one you want, save the file, then run:

git add file.js
git commit -m "resolved merge conflict"

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You are ready!

Go back to the Issues page and start your open-source journey.