Discard an unstaged edit to one tracked file.

Git: Restore copies the index version back into the selected working file.

Shell terminal
set -euo pipefail
git restore -- note.txt
cat note.txt

Expected output EXAMPLE

first

Details

Requires Git and Bash. Run in a disposable practice repository. The test setup below creates the starting files and commits. Restore copies the index version back into the selected working file. The input setup creates a disposable practice repository with a fictional local author identity. Run these examples only in that repository.

Keep in mind

This deliberately discards the selected unstaged edits. The practice fixture makes the scope explicit.

✓ Verified

Tested on Ubuntu 24.04.5 LTS · · git version 2.43.0 · git 1:2.43.0-1ubuntu7.3

Test inputs, results and environment

The exact published code ran in a dedicated Linux test container with prepared inputs. Snippet process uid 65534 with a read-only root filesystem and temporary working files. Networking disabled. Fixtures and output records are isolated from the application database. Testing covers this example and its stated checks, not every input, operating system, or runtime version. The Linux container shares its host's kernel; this is not a native Windows test.

Architecture / host kernel
x86_64 / 6.18.54.1-microsoft-standard-WSL2
Snippet identity / locale
uid=65534, gid=65534 (unprivileged process) / C.UTF-8
Interpreter invocation
bash -euo pipefail -c <published code>
Container image ID
sha256:ec91410a8f6ec3e985830b5e3a0560306d36f8c1c5ccd91a6699abe707123fa3
Code SHA-256
535d1f526d2fa5107f11fcae9e42437af41db9360acfbccde35421fe93cbab38
Dependencies
git 1:2.43.0-1ubuntu7.3

Test input setup

These are the prepared inputs used by the test harness. See Details above for the prerequisites and how to run this example.

git init -q -b main
git config user.name 'Example Developer'
git config user.email 'developer@example.invalid'
git config commit.gpgsign false
git config tag.gpgsign false
git config color.ui false
printf 'first
' > note.txt
git add note.txt
git commit -qm 'Initial notes'
printf 'changed\n' >> note.txt

Observed standard output

first

Exit code: 0. Standard error: empty. Validation: Exact stdout comparison. System-dependent values above are one recorded run.