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Remove Commits

🎯 Goal: Remove unwanted commits from your GitHub Branch.

✅ What You Need:​

  • Git installed on your computer
  • Visual Studio Code installed
  • A GitHub repository cloned locally
  • The branch you want to clean (e.g., main)

🪄 Step-by-Step Guide​

1. Open Your Project in VS Code​

Open the folder that contains your GitHub project in Visual Studio Code.

2. Open the Terminal in VS Code​

  • Click on Terminal → New Terminal
  • Or press [ Ctrl + ` ] to open the terminal inside VS Code.

3. Check the Commit History​

Type this command in the terminal:

git log --oneline

This will show a list of commits like:

<commit_hash> Commit message 1
<commit_hash> Commit message 2
<commit_hash> Commit message 3
<commit_hash> Commit message 4
<commit_hash> Commit message 5

Each line is one commit. The top one is the most recent.

4. Start Interactive Rebase​

Choose how many commits you want to review. If it’s the last 5, type:

git rebase -i HEAD~5

This opens a text file in VS Code. (or usually default editor like vim)

5. Edit the File to Delete Commits​

You’ll see something like this:

pick <commit_hash> Commit message 1
pick <commit_hash> Commit message 2
pick <commit_hash> Commit message 3
pick <commit_hash> Commit message 4
pick <commit_hash> Commit message 5

To delete a commit, change pick to drop.

Example to keep only the first commit:

pick <commit_hash> Commit message 1
drop <commit_hash> Commit message 2
drop <commit_hash> Commit message 3
drop <commit_hash> Commit message 4
pick <commit_hash> Commit message 5

6. Save and Close the File​

  • Press Ctrl + S to save the file.
  • Press Ctrl + W to close the file tab.

Git will now remove the commits you marked as drop.

7. Push Your Changes to GitHub​

Since you changed the commit history, do a force push:

git push origin your-branch-name --force

For example:

git push origin dev --force

🎉 You’re Done!​

Your branch now contains only the commits you want.

💡 Tips:​

  • Always double-check before force-pushing!
  • To be safe, create a backup:
git checkout -b backup-branch

This guide is perfect for beginners or anyone cleaning up their Git commit history.