How to discard all changes made to a branch?

In Git, discarding all changes on a branch depends on whether the changes are committed or uncommitted.

1. Discard Uncommitted Changes

If you have uncommitted changes on the branch (i.e., changes in the working directory or staging area), you can use the following commands to discard them:

bash
git checkout -- .

or

bash
git restore .

These commands reset the working directory to match HEAD (the latest commit of the current branch). To discard changes for a specific file, replace . with the filename.

2. Reset Committed Changes

If you have already made some commits but now want to reset to a previous state, you can use the following commands:

a. Reset to a Specific Commit

If you know the specific commit to reset to, you can use the git reset command:

bash
git reset --hard <commit-hash>

For example, if you want to revert to a previous commit, find its hash and use the command. This resets the current branch's HEAD, index (staging area), and working directory to the specified commit state.

b. Reset to a Remote Branch State

If you want to discard all commits and changes on the local branch and reset it to the remote branch's state, you can use the following command:

bash
git reset --hard origin/<branch-name>

This resets your local branch to the current state of the remote branch. This is useful for synchronizing with the latest remote branch state.

Example

Suppose I developed a feature locally but decide to discard all changes for it. I can do the following:

1. Check for uncommitted changes:

   bash
   

git status

shell
2. Discard all uncommitted changes:
   ```bash
git restore .

1. Find the commit hash when you started the feature:

   bash
   

git log

shell
4. Reset to that commit:
   ```bash
git reset --hard <commit-hash>

By following these steps, I can ensure my branch is reset to the state before I started the feature.