Reset local repository branch to be just like remote repository HEAD

I needed to do (the solution in the accepted answer):

git fetch origin
git reset --hard origin/master

Followed by:

git clean -f

to remove local files

git reset --hard HEAD actually only resets to the last committed state. In this case HEAD refers to the HEAD of your branch.

If you have several commits, this won't work..

What you probably want to do, is reset to the head of origin or whatever you remote repository is called. I'd probably just do something like

git reset --hard origin/HEAD

Be careful though. Hard resets cannot easily be undone. It is better to do as Dan suggests, and branch off a copy of your changes before resetting.

First, reset to the previously fetched HEAD of the corresponding upstream branch:

git reset --hard @{upstream}

The advantage of specifying @{upstream} or its abbreviated form @{u} is that the name of the remote repo and branch don't have to be explicitly specified.

Next, get the latest changes:

git pull

All of the above suggests are right, but often to really reset your project, you also need to remove even files that are in your .gitignore.

To get the moral equivalent of erasing your project directory and re-cloning from the remote is:

git fetch
git reset --hard
git clean -x -d -f

This is something I face regularly, & I've generalised the script Wolfgang provided above to work with any branch

I also added an "are you sure" prompt, & some feedback output

#!/bin/bash
# reset the current repository
# WF 2012-10-15
# AT 2012-11-09
# see http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1628088/how-to-reset-my-local-repository-to-be-just-like-the-remote-repository-head
timestamp=`date "+%Y-%m-%d-%H_%M_%S"`
branchname=`git rev-parse --symbolic-full-name --abbrev-ref HEAD`
read -p "Reset branch $branchname to origin (y/n)? "
[ "$REPLY" != "y" ] || 
echo "about to auto-commit any changes"
git commit -a -m "auto commit at $timestamp"
if [ $? -eq 0 ]
then
  echo "Creating backup auto-save branch: auto-save-$branchname-at-$timestamp"
  git branch "auto-save-$branchname-at-$timestamp" 
fi
echo "now resetting to origin/$branchname"
git fetch origin
git reset --hard origin/$branchname

The question mixes two issues here:

1. how to reset a local branch to the point where the remote is
2. how to clear your staging area (and possibly the working directory), so that git status says nothing to commit, working directory clean.

The one-stop-answer is:

1. git fetch --prune _{^{(optional) Updates the local snapshot of the remote repo. Further commands are local only.}}
   git reset --hard @{upstream}_{^{Puts the local branch pointer to where the snapshot of the remote is, as well as set the index and the working directory to the files of that commit.}}
2. git clean -d --force _{^{Removes untracked files and directories which hinder git to say “working directory clean”.}}

Here is a script that automates what the most popular answer suggests ... See http://stackoverflow.com/a/13308579/1497139 for an improved version that supports branches

#!/bin/bash
# reset the current repository
# WF 2012-10-15
# see http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1628088/how-to-reset-my-local-repository-to-be-just-like-the-remote-repository-head
timestamp=`date "+%Y-%m-%d-%H_%M_%S"`
git commit -a -m "auto commit at $timestamp"
if [ $? -eq 0 ]
then
  git branch "auto-save-at-$timestamp" 
fi
git fetch origin
git reset --hard origin/master

I did:

git branch -D master
git checkout master

to totally reset branch

note, you should checkout to another branch to be able to delete required branch

If you had a problem as me, that you have already commited some changes, but now, for any reason you want to get rid of it, the quickest way is to use git reset like this:

git reset --hard HEAD~2

I had 2 not needed commits, hence the number 2. You can change it to your own number of commits to reset.

So answering your question - if you're 5 commits ahead of remote repository HEAD, you should run this command:

git reset --hard HEAD~5

Notice that you will lose the changes you've made, so be carefull!

If you want to go back to the HEAD state for both the working directory and the index, then you should git reset --hard HEAD, rather than to HEAD^. (This may have been a typo, just like the single versus double dash for --hard.)

As for your specific question as to why those files appear in the status as modified, it looks like perhaps you did a soft reset instead of a hard reset. This will cause the files that were changed in the HEAD commit to appear as if they were staged, which is likely what you are seeing here.

Previous answers assume that the branch to be reset is the current branch (checked out). In comments, OP hap497 clarified that the branch is indeed checked out, but this is not explicitly required by the original question. Since there is at least one "duplicate" question, Reset branch completely to repository state, which does not assume that the branch is checked out, here's an alternative:

If branch "mybranch" is not currently checked out, to reset it to remote branch "myremote/mybranch"'s head, you can use this low-level command:

git update-ref refs/heads/mybranch myremote/mybranch

This method leaves the checked out branch as it is, and the working tree untouched. It simply moves mybranch's head to another commit, whatever is given as the second argument. This is especially helpful if multiple branches need to be updated to new remote heads.

Use caution when doing this, though, and use gitk or a similar tool to double check source and destination. If you accidentally do this on the current branch (and git will not keep you from this), you may become confused, because the new branch content does not match the working tree, which did not change (to fix, update the branch again, to where it was before).

If you don't mind saving your local changes, yet still want to update your repository to match origin/HEAD, you can simply stash your local changes and then pull:

git stash
git pull