How can I use SourceTree to roll back my Git repository to an earlier commit?

[David Berdik]

I am entirely new to Git, SourceTree, and everything about it. I am using SourceTree with Bitbucket but I need some help. As I know absolutely nothing about Git or SourceTree, I would like to learn how to use SourceTree to revert all the files in my Git repository to the state they were in when I made an earlier commit. Basically I want to roll back to an earlier commit so that I can access the files as they were at that point, but I want to be able to keep my existing commits so that I can roll forward as necessary. I also want to be able to make commits of the files based on the files from older commits. How can I do all of this?

[crf]

Disclaimer: I'm a command line guy, so I haven't used SourceTree enough to tell you specifics, there.

As I read your question, all you are really wanting to do is view that version of the tree, not undo everyone's changes.  This is simply a "checkout".  Given SourceTree's GUI nature, I would expect this to be something like right-clicking on the commit you are interested in and choosing the checkout from a pop-up menu or something similar.

For reference, the command line version of doing that looks something like this:

cfuller@crf:~/src/atlassian/jira-bugfix [(atlassian_jira_6_3_8)]$ git log --oneline | head -5
68f19fa AUTOCOMMIT bump JIRA version from 6.3.8-SNAPSHOT to 6.3.8
514f45b NONE: Fix webdriver batches PT so it doesnt duplicate the definition of batch 06
7facb80 JDEV-30619: Updating variables for 6.3.8 stable release cut
27029ae Merge pull request #1810 in JIRA/jira from stable-issue/JDEV-30651-upgrade-dvcs-connector-2.1.24 to atlassian_jira_6_3_branch
76d9270 Merge pull request #1799 in JIRA/jira from stable-issue/SW-533-inline-component-bugfix to atlassian_jira_6_3_branch
cfuller@crf:~/src/atlassian/jira-bugfix [(atlassian_jira_6_3_8)]$ git checkout 76d9270
Previous HEAD position was 68f19fa... AUTOCOMMIT bump JIRA version from 6.3.8-SNAPSHOT to 6.3.8
HEAD is now at 76d9270... Merge pull request #1799 in JIRA/jira from stable-issue/SW-533-inline-component-bugfix to atlassian_jira_6_3_branch
cfuller@crf:~/src/atlassian/jira-bugfix [(76d9270...)]$

My working directory has now been set up exactly as things were at that commit.  To get back, I just checkout the original position:

cfuller@crf:~/src/atlassian/jira-bugfix [(76d9270...)]$ git checkout HEAD@{1}
Previous HEAD position was 76d9270... Merge pull request #1799 in JIRA/jira from stable-issue/SW-533-inline-component-bugfix to atlassian_jira_6_3_branch
HEAD is now at 68f19fa... AUTOCOMMIT bump JIRA version from 6.3.8-SNAPSHOT to 6.3.8
cfuller@crf:~/src/atlassian/jira-bugfix [(atlassian_jira_6_3_8)]$

[David Berdik]

Thank you for your help. As I am new to Git, I am using SourceTree for now, but eventually I would like to transition to command line usage.

[Seth]

Also, as someone who is new to Git, you should read the Git book. It won't take much time. You should focus on 1.1-1.3 and chapters 2 and 3. The examples there are all command line, but understanding the terminology will make the Sourcetree UI much more intuitive.

[David Berdik]

Thanks for the suggestion! I'll certainly do it!

[Bhushan Nagaraj]

Hi David,

You should explore more about the following commands

1. checkout
2. revert

Documentation and tutorials available at

https://www.atlassian.com/git/tutorials/undoing-changes/git-revert

[David Berdik]

Thank you, but I am new to Git and want to learn how to use Git with a user interface (SourceTree) before using command line to do everything.