Changing your last commit

If you want to add changes to your previous commit or change the previous message use git commit --amend. If you amend a commit that's already been pushed to the remote you'll have to force the next push to the remote (be careful as you may lose history).

1. Let's make some changes:

   % echo "Changing stuff" >> INSTALL
   % git add INSTALL
   % git commit -m "Changing stuff"
   [master 86cc1c2] Changing stuff
   1 files changed, 1 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
   % git status
   # On branch master
   # Your branch is ahead of 'origin/master' by 1 commit.
   #
   nothing to commit (working directory clean)
   % git log
   commit 86cc1c2fc46f632a0ee4b4b0b97adf7f7f4d7c72
   Author: Abhik B Pramanik <abhik@alum.berkeley.edu>
   Date:   Wed Aug 10 20:45:48 2011 -0700
   
       Changing stuff
   
       commit 288741dc5ef74ba119eb75daa962da29b0c686a8
       Author: Abhik Pramanik <abhik@alum.berkeley.edu>
       Date:   Tue Aug 2 21:50:56 2011 -0700
   
           Adding clean instructions to INSTALL
   

Change the message

2. With no staged changes change simply run git commit --amend or git commit --amend -m <message>

   % git commit --amend -m "Test"
   [master f3d1b09] Test
    1 files changed, 1 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
   % git status
   # On branch master
   # Your branch is ahead of 'origin/master' by 1 commit.
   #
   nothing to commit (working directory clean)
   % git log
   commit f3d1b095d7292f315a9fe9a72bb88cf60a19d7a2
   Author: Abhik B Pramanik <abhik@alum.berkeley.edu>
   Date:   Wed Aug 10 20:45:48 2011 -0700
   
       Test
   

Add changes

2. Stage the commits you want to add and run git commit --amend

   % echo "Another" >> README
   % git add README
   % git commit --amend -m "Another"
   [master c6cfd32] Another
   2 files changed, 2 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
   % git status
   # On branch master
   # Your branch is ahead of 'origin/master' by 1 commit.
   #
   nothing to commit (working directory clean)
   % git log
   commit c6cfd32a559352a4bac9bf1dfc21ca7e726821d8
   Author: Abhik B Pramanik <abhik@alum.berkeley.edu>
   Date:   Wed Aug 10 20:45:48 2011 -0700
   
       Another