Removing an Erroneous Git Commit and Cleaning Up History

After mistakenly committing a private message to a repository, the author demonstrates several ways to remove the erroneous commit and restore the repository to the previous state.

Preparation

A test project is created with sequential files (001‑005) where the fifth commit is the unwanted one.

Solution 1: Interactive git rebase -i

Run git rebase -i HEAD~3 to open an editor with the last three commits, delete the line for the bad commit, save, and then force‑push with git push --force . This rewrites history, removes the commit, and updates the remote repository.

git rebase -i HEAD~3
Successfully rebased and updated refs/heads/master.

Force‑pushing overwrites the remote history, so it should be coordinated with the team.

Solution 2: git reset

Using git reset --hard HEAD~1 discards the latest commit entirely. After resetting, a forced push ( git push --force ) is required to sync the remote repository.

git reset --hard HEAD~1

Solution 3: git revert

Reverting the bad commit with git revert f3d8db creates a new commit that undoes the changes while preserving history. After reverting, push normally or force‑push if needed.

git revert f3d8db

Solution 4: git filter-branch (advanced)

For a more aggressive rewrite, git filter-branch --commit-filter can change author information or remove commits based on a condition. This rewrites the entire history and should be used with backups and team agreement.

git filter-branch --commit-filter '
    if git log --format="%B" -n 1 $GIT_COMMIT | grep -q "异常提交"; then 
        GIT_AUTHOR_NAME="new baby"; 
        GIT_COMMITTER_NAME="new baby"; 
        git commit-tree "$@"; 
    else 
        git commit-tree "$@"; 
    fi' -- --all

Difference Between git rebase and git reset

git rebase moves a series of commits onto a new base, effectively rewriting history.

git reset moves the HEAD pointer to a previous commit, discarding or unstaging changes.

Both commands are useful for cleaning up commits, but rebase is preferred for reorganizing history, while reset is for discarding recent work.