Practical uses of git reset --soft?

Question

I have been working with git for just over a month. Indeed I have used reset for the first time only yesterday, but the soft reset still doesn\'t make much sense to me.

Answer 1

Use Case - Combine a series of local commits

"Oops. Those three commits could be just one."

So, undo the last 3 (or whatever) commits (without affecting the index nor working directory). Then commit all the changes as one.

E.g.

> git add -A; git commit -m "Start here."
> git add -A; git commit -m "One"
> git add -A; git commit -m "Two"
> git add -A' git commit -m "Three"
> git log --oneline --graph -4 --decorate

> * da883dc (HEAD, master) Three
> * 92d3eb7 Two
> * c6e82d3 One
> * e1e8042 Start here.

> git reset --soft HEAD~3
> git log --oneline --graph -1 --decorate

> * e1e8042 Start here.

Now all your changes are preserved and ready to be committed as one.

Short answers to your questions

Are these two commands really the same (reset --soft vs commit --amend)?

• No.

Any reason to use one or the other in practical terms?

• commit --amend to add/rm files from the very last commit or to change its message.
• reset --soft to combine several sequential commits into a new one.

And more importantly, are there any other uses for reset --soft apart from amending a commit?

• See other answers :)