How do I reset the working tree without moving HEAD?

Question

Given a git branch with some commits on it (C is the most recent commit):

A -> B -> C

How do I reset my workspace so that all the fil

Answer 1

git checkout [-p|--patch] [] [--] ...

git checkout with or --patch is used to restore modified or deleted paths to their original contents from the index or replace paths with the contents from a named (most often a commit-ish).

So you need to run this at root of your repository (works fine for any sub-tree or file(s) too):

git checkout HEAD~ -- .

This will result in git applying changes necessary to revert files to HEAD~ state, the changes will be in the index.