git restore

Discard edits in a file or unstage it

What it does

Without flags, git restore brings a file back to its staged version, or to the last commit if it was never staged. Put simply, it throws away edits that have not been through git add.

With --staged it works on the index instead: the file leaves the index and your edits stay in it. This undoes git add. The command arrived in git 2.23; before that the same was done with git checkout -- <file> and git reset <file>.

Careful. git restore <file> without --staged erases uncommitted edits in the file. They cannot be brought back: git never saved them.

Syntax

git restore <file>
git restore --staged <file>

Examples

Discard the unstaged edits in src/app.js
```
git restore src/app.js
```
same as: git checkout -- src/app.js
- restore — return the file to its version in the index
- src/app.js — file
Unstage src/app.js but keep the edits in the file
```
git restore --staged src/app.js
```
same as: git reset HEAD src/app.js, git reset src/app.js
- restore — restore
- --staged — only the index, leave the file alone
- src/app.js — file

Related commands

git add — Stage changes so they go into the next commit
git status — See what changed in the folder and what is already staged
git reset — Move the branch to another commit, for example to undo the last commits

Practise · All commands