> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://smallsharpsoftwaretools.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Throwing All Your Work Away in Git



Occasionally you'll find yourself in a situation where you've written some code, created some files, and done a whole bunch of work, only to realize that you don't need it, or don't want it anymore. Now you've got to clean up your working directory.

The `git checkout` command can get you part of the way there, as can `git reset`. But these won't handle any new objects you've created. So rather than manually cleaning things up, take advantage of some additional options Git provides.


These two commands will reset your repository and clean up all of the things you haven't checked in yet:

```command
git reset --hard HEAD
```

```command
git clean -f -d
```

The first command reverts all of your changes to the code. You're probably familiar with that. The second command removes any new files and directories you've created.

Give it a try. Create a new repository. Create and switch to a new directory:

```command
mkdir -p testing && cd !$
```

Then initialize the directory as a repository:

```command
git init
```

Add some code:

```command
echo "this is a file" > README.md
```

```command
git add README.md
```

```command
git commit -m "initial import of readme"
```

Now add a new directory and a file:

```command
mkdir lib
```

```command
echo "this is another file" > lib/file.txt
```

Then make a change to the `README.md` file:

```command
echo "This is a second line" >> README.md
```

Use `git status` to see the state of your repository:

```command
git status
```

```
On branch master
Changes not staged for commit:
  (use "git add <file>..." to update what will be committed)
  (use "git restore <file>..." to discard changes in working directory)
	modified:   README.md

Untracked files:
  (use "git add <file>..." to include in what will be committed)
	lib/

no changes added to commit (use "git add" and/or "git commit -a")
```

So from this output you see there's a change to the `README.md` file and a new `lib` folder Git doesn't know about.

To throw all this away, execute the `git reset` and `git clean` commands. Run them sequentially with `&&` which runs the `clean` command if the `reset` command succeeds:

```command
git reset --hard HEAD && git clean -f -d
```

You'll see this message, letting you know it worked:

```
HEAD is now at 2949ebf initial import of readme
Removing lib/
```

The `lib` directory and its contents are gone, as is your change to the `README.md` file.

Since the command to clean things up is a lot of typing, open your `~/.gitconfig` file and add an alias for it:

```
[alias]
trashit = !git reset --hard HEAD && git clean -f -d
```

With the alias in place, you can run `git trashit` to clean things up.

This cleanup approach is handy if you've used CLI tools to generate new files in your project and you made a mistake, or for other situations where you just want everything put back the way it was.