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Reflog

Reflog lists recent HEAD movements per reference and can restore a branch to an earlier entry — useful for recovering from a bad reset or rebase. Restore moves only the branch: your files and staged changes stay as they are.

Like git branch -f, Restore refuses a branch that another worktree has checked out ("branch 'topic' is checked out in another worktree at '/work/topic'"), and a branch that a rebase started in a terminal is rebasing, in any worktree. Restore it from that worktree, or finish or abort the rebase first. It also refuses:

  • the branch a git bisect started from, in any worktree ("branch 'topic' is being bisected …"). End the bisect with git bisect reset first.
  • a branch that a git rebase --update-refs in another worktree will move.
  • the branch a rebase paused in Browsitory is rebasing in another worktree ("branch 'topic' is being rebased in another worktree at …"). Continue or abort that rebase first.
  • the branch a cherry-pick or revert paused in Browsitory runs on in another worktree ("branch 'topic' has a paused cherry-pick in another worktree at …"). Continue or abort it first.

If that other worktree's folder is gone, or is no longer a worktree, the message says so and asks you to run git worktree prune, which removes the stale entry. If that worktree is locked (for example on an unmounted drive), git keeps it, and the message says so: run git worktree unlock first if it is gone for good. Like Reset, Restore doesn't move this worktree's HEAD or current branch while a merge, cherry-pick, revert or rebase is paused ("Finish or abort the current merge/cherry-pick/revert/rebase first."; for a rebase started in a terminal, it says to continue or abort it there).