Git protip: fix last commit with "--amend"

By Maxime Bréhin • Published on 26 September 2022 • 2 min

Ah, carelessness, oversights and poorly written messages… All those situations where you created a commit only to realize that you screwed up!

Fortunately, the --amend option of the commit command is there to save you! 😮‍💨

Conceptually, Git will take one step back and one step forward for you. It will revert to the state it was in before committing (equivalent to git reset --soft HEAD~1), and will automatically commit again with all staged files (including the new ones, if you had added to the stage before running the --amend). Basically, it will undo your commit and create a new one instead, allowing / including intermediate changes:

• adding / removing files;
• updating metadata (usually the commit message).

The command is quite simple:

git commit --amend

Let’s look at the main use cases.

Adding a forgotten file

The most common case is forgetting to add a file to your commit, most of the time because it was untracked and you just went with the -a option that only adds already tracked / known files to Git: git commit -am '…'.

To fix this, you’ll have to:

• add the file(s) to the stage: git add <les-chemins>;
• cancel and replace the commit: git commit --amend.

Rewording the commit message

Let them who never made a typo or forgot an important reference like a ticket number in a commit message cast the first stone! Personally, I’m terrible at this.

When that happens, you’ll have to:

• check that your stage is empty (you don’t want to add stuff to the updated commit);
• run the git commit --amend command, possibly with the message “on the fly” if you want to rewrite it entirely (git commit --amend -m 'New message').

More tips and tricks?

We’ve got a whole bunch of existing articles and more to come. Also check out our 🔥 killer Git training course: 360° Git!