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git revert conflicts when Git cannot apply the inverse of an earlier commit cleanly to the files as they exist now. Later edits may have changed the same lines or the context Git needs to reverse, leaving you to choose the intended final contents. Resolve and stage the affected files, then run git revert --continue to finish; use git revert --abort to cancel.
What Git is doing when a revert conflicts
git revert reverses changes introduced by an existing commit and records the reversal as a new commit. It does not erase the original commit from history. In the Git Project’s git-revert documentation, the operation is described as reversing changes from existing commits and recording new commits.
To make that new commit, Git attempts to apply the earlier change in reverse to the current tree. If the relevant lines or their surrounding context have changed since the target commit, Git may not be able to determine the right result automatically. This follows from how revert applies an inverse change and how Git handles overlapping changes; it is not a claim that conflicts occur at any particular rate.
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How to fix a revert conflict
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Check the repository state. Run
git statusand identify the files involved. The revert command expects a clean working tree, so preserve unrelated work and resolve any existing changes before starting a new revert. -
Inspect each conflicted file and its diff. Git may already have applied the clean parts of the inverse change. Review the surrounding code and the original change so you understand what the final file should contain.
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Edit the files to the intended final contents. Keep the right combination of changes for the current branch and remove the conflict markers. Do not blindly accept one side if doing so would discard work that should remain.
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Stage each resolved file. For example, run
git add path/to/filefor each file you resolved. Staging tells Git that the file’s conflict has been addressed. -
Continue the revert. Run
git revert --continue. Git completes the operation and creates the revert commit if the remaining requirements are met.
Which revert command should you use next?
| Command | Effect | When to use it |
|---|---|---|
git revert --continue |
Resumes and completes the current revert after conflicts are resolved and staged. | You want to finish the revert. |
git revert --skip |
Skips the current commit being processed in a sequence. | You are reverting multiple commits and intentionally want to omit the current one. |
git revert --abort |
Cancels the current revert sequence and returns to the state before that sequence began. | You want to cancel the operation rather than complete it. |
git revert --quit |
Clears the sequencer operation state without performing the sequence’s continuation or abort behavior. | You want to forget the sequencer state; understand the resulting repository state before proceeding. |
These controls are documented in the Git Project’s git-revert manual. For a single commit, --skip is generally not the recovery choice unless Git is processing it as part of a sequence.
Revert, reset, and restore are different operations
These commands affect different parts of Git’s state. Choosing the wrong one can change history or discard work:
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git revertadds a new commit that reverses an earlier commit’s changes. It is useful when you want to preserve the existing history while recording a correction.Best Value
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git resetmoves or adjusts the current history and, depending on its options, the index or working tree. It is not the same as making a new inverse commit. -
git restorecopies file contents from a source to the working tree or index. It does not create a revert commit.
The Git revert manual distinguishes revert from reset and restore, and warns that reset or restore alternatives can discard uncommitted changes. Do not use git reset --hard as a substitute for resolving a revert conflict: it is a different operation and can discard local work.
What changes when you revert a merge commit?
A merge commit has more than one parent, so Git needs you to select the parent that defines the mainline perspective for the reversal. The command takes this form:
git revert -m <parent-number> <merge-commit>
The -m value is the parent number, not a branch name. Before running the command, identify the intended parent and understand the history consequence described in the Git Project’s git-revert documentation: reverting a merge declares that the tree changes brought in by that merge are unwanted. Later merges bring in only changes from commits that are not ancestors of the reverted merge. That behavior can affect subsequent integration, so a merge revert is more than simply undoing a commit’s visible file changes.
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