Git: How do you replace your current working directory with a previous commit without branching or git revert?

Question

Is there an easy way to the following with git?

Basically I want to create a new commit at the top of my commit history that is equivalent to a previous com

Answer 1

In situation when you want to return to some state you do following:

git reset --hard 49a732c

This step put your master branch into desired state. If you want to save you previous branch state:

git checkout 48ah14s -b archive/my-unrecognized-experiments

You still can do it after reset because reset doesn't delete commits.

PS Branching is essential part of git. It is better to teach branching then teach such complicated (in git) things as you pictured.

EDIT If you want your master to stay consistent with remotes:

git reset 49a732c # move HEAD back, all changes still in working tree
git commit -am "My unrecognized experiments" # save all changes as one commit
git reset --hard 48ah14s  # restore master HEAD
git revert  # apply reverted changes to master