Recovering lost files in Git after hard resets

🔧 How I Recovered a Lost File After git reset --hard in Git

Disclaimer: You are not guaranteed that you can recover the lost file from your Git repo's dangling blogs, much of this information is kept only for a few weeks. Therefore, you should run recovery of a lost file in Git repo as soon as possible or within a few weeks.

Have you ever added a file in Git, only to lose it after running git reset --hard? I did — and I managed to recover it using a lesser-known Git command: git fsck.

Here’s how it happened and how I got my file back.

💥 The Mistake

I created a file called fil2.txt, added it to Git with:

git add fil2.txt

But before committing it, I ran:

git reset --hard

This command wipes out all uncommitted changes, including files that were staged but not yet committed. My file was gone from the working directory and the staging area.

🕵️‍♂️ The Recovery Trick: git fsck

Thankfully, Git doesn’t immediately delete everything. It keeps unreferenced objects (like blobs) around for a while. You can find them using:

git fsck --lost-found

This listed several dangling blobs — unreferenced file contents:

dangling blob fb48af767fd2271a9978045a971c2eee199b03b7

🔍 Finding the Right Blob

To inspect the contents of a blob, I used:

git show fb48af767fd2271a9978045a971c2eee199b03b7

It printed:

dette er en fil som jeg fil recovere

That was my lost file!

💾 Restoring the File

To recover it, I simply redirected the blob’s contents back into a file:

git show fb48af767fd2271a9978045a971c2eee199b03b7 > fil2.txt

And just like that, fil2.txt was back in my working directory.

✅ Lesson Learned

• git reset --hard is powerful — and dangerous.
• If you lose a file, don’t panic. Try git fsck --lost-found.
• You might be able to recover your work — even if it was never committed.

Additional Tips - More detailed dangling objecst information

Git Alias: Dangling Object Summary

This Git alias defines a shell function that summarizes dangling objects in your repository, showing type, SHA, commit metadata, and blob previews.

[alias]
    dangling-summary = "!sh -c '\
        summarize_dangling() { \
            git fsck --full | grep dangling | while read -r _ type sha; do \
                echo -e \"\\033[1;33mType:\\033[0m $type\"; \
                echo -e \"\\033[1;33mSHA:\\033[0m $sha\"; \
                case $type in \
                    commit) \
                        author=$(git show -s --format=%an $sha); \
                        date=$(git show -s --format=%ci $sha); \
                        msg=$(git show -s --format=%s $sha); \
                        echo -e \"\\033[1;33mAuthor:\\033[0m $author\"; \
                        echo -e \"\\033[1;33mDate:\\033[0m $date\"; \
                        echo -e \"\\033[0;32mMessage:\\033[0m $msg\" ;; \
                    blob) \
                        preview=$(git cat-file -p $sha | head -n 3 | cut -c1-80); \
                        echo -e \"\\033[0;32mPreview:\\033[0m\\n$preview\" ;; \
                esac; \
                echo -e \"-----------------------------\"; \
            done; \
        }; \
        summarize_dangling'"

Screenshot showing the detailed dangling objects summary :

💡 Tips for Using This Alias

• Run git dangling-summary inside any Git repository to inspect unreachable objects.
• Useful for recovering lost commits or inspecting orphaned blobs.
• Blob previews are limited to 3 lines, each up to 80 characters wide for readability.
• Commit metadata includes author and timestamp for better context.
• If you did not commit the file, just added it to your Git repo and then for example did a hard reset or in some other way lost the file(s), there will not be shown any date and author here. The example screenshot above shows an example of this. If you DID commit, author and date will show up.

Adding only untracked files in Git repo using Powershell

Are you a .NET developer mainly still use Windows OS and use Powershell and not Git bash for example ? The following procedure can be followed to create an aliased function for adding untracked files in a Git repository. Inside your $profile file of Powershell (in case it is missing - you can run: New-Item $Profile) notepad $Profile Now add this Powershell method:

function AddUntracked-Git() {
 &git ls-files -o --exclude-standard | select | foreach { git add $_ }
}

Save the $profile file and reload it into Powershell. Then reload your $profile file with: . $profile This is similar to the source command in *nix environments IMHO. So next time you, if you are developer using Powershell in Windows against Git repo and want to just include untracked files you can run: AddUntracked-Git This follows the Powershell convention where you have verb-nouns.

Quickly search your Git log using wildcards and shell function

Imagine you got a Git repository with a long history - equivalent to log - and you want find a changeset with a comment containing a word or some words and you want to get the commit SHA to quickly cherry pick that commit to your target branch. This is easier using Azure Devops or some tool, but how to quickly search the log. First we define a search log shell function inside our git config file .gitconfig :

searchlog = "!f() { git --no-pager log --color-words --all --decorate --graph -i --grep \"$1\";  }; f"

Now we can search the log quickly using a wildcard:

git searchlog "visning.*av.*nåtidslinje.*"

We separate our search words with the .* regex syntax and we can search our git log for multiple keywords quickly and get a nice presentation of commits with commit messages matching our log. And now we have a quick way to find our Git commits through the log and the command line to overcome our needly in the haystack scenario.

Displaying branch history in Git

I desired to have an easy branch log today. The following alias commands makes this easier. These go under the [alias] section in the .gitconfig file you are using in your repository.

latest = "!f() { echo "Latest \"${1:-11}\" commits accross all branches:"; git log  --abbrev-commit --date=relative --branches --all --pretty=format:'%Cred%h%Creset -%C(yellow)%d%Creset %s %Cgreen(%cr) %C(bold blue)<%an>%Creset%n' -n ${1:-11};  } ; f"
logbranch = "!f() { echo "Latest \"${1:-11}\" commits in current branch against master:"; git log master..${1:git branch}  --abbrev-commit --date=relative  --pretty=format:'%C(yellow)%h%Creset -%C(yellow)%d%Creset %s %Cgreen(%cr) %C(white blue bold)<%an>%Creset%n' -n ${1:-11};  } ; f"

git logbranch will display only the latest commit for the specified branch or defaulting to the current branch, defaulting to last 11 commits using a shell function. Note that we compare against the master branch. And we get the following sample output:

Closing branches in Git

Git unlike Mercurial has no builtin support for closing branches. This leads to a proliferation of branches and running git branch -a to view remote branches or git branch will show ever more branches. Actually, closing a branch in Git can be supported through the use of tags. We decide to keep the tag for future use, so that we can use it to check out a new branch from this tag. Another way would of course be to just delete a brach local and/or remote, but that is not the same as closing a branch. Closing a branch in Mercurial still makes it possible to reopen it again for later work. Anyways, in this article, I will show two aliases which can be used to close a branch, either both local and remote or just remote. Put the following into the [alias] section of your .gitConfig file:

closebranch = "!w() { echo Attempting to close local and remote branch: $1 Processing...; echo Checking the branch $1 out..; git checkout $1; echo Trying to create a new tag archive/$1; git tag archive/\"$1\"; git push origin archive/\"$1\"; echo Deleting the local branch $1; git branch -d $1;  echo Deleting the remote branch $1; git push origin --delete $1; echo Done. To restore the closed branch later, enter: git checkout -b MyNewBranch archive/\"$1\"; }; w"

closebranchpassive = "!w() { echo Attempting to close local and remote branch: $1 Processing...; echo Checking the branch $1 out..; git checkout $1; echo Trying to create a new tag archive/$1; git tag archive/\"$1\"; git push origin archive/$1; echo Deleting the local branch $1;   echo Deleting the remote branch $1;  echo Done. To restore the closed branch later, enter: git checkout -b MyNewBranch archive/\"$1\"; }; w"

closeremotebranch =  "!w() { echo Attempting to close remote branch: $1 Processing...; echo Checking the branch $1 out..; git checkout $1;  echo Trying to create a new tag archive/$1; git tag archive/\"$1\"; git push origin archive/\"$1\"; echo Deleting the remote branch $1; git push origin --delete $1; echo Done. To restore the closed branch later, enter: git checkout -b MyNewBranch archive/\"$1\"; }; w"

What we do here is the following:

• Check out the branch to close
• Tag this branch as archive/branchname
• Important - push the tag the remote e.g. origin in the provided aliased commands above
• (Delete the local branch)
• Delete the remote branch
• Display a friendly output message how to restore the branch later through a tag

What we use here is a shell function in each alias. This allows us to do multiple commands in Git through a simple aliased command. Say you want to close a local and remote branch called MyBranchToBeClosed. Just enter: git closebranch MyBranchToBeClosed If you just want to close the remote branch and keep the local one, enter: git closeremotebranch MyBranchToBeClosed To restore the branch MyBranchToBeClosed (which now is actually closed!) later, just enter: git checkout -b MyRestoredBranch archive/MyBranchToBeClosed This lets you keep old branch around as tags and not proliferate the branch listings. We however have moved the branch(es) over to tags prefixed with archive/ I wish Git was simpler to use sometimes so we did not have to use such hacks, closing branches should be easy.

Some handy Git tips - show latest commits and searching the log and more

This article will present some tips around Git and how you can add functionality for showing the latest commits and search the log. I would like to search these aliased command to show you how they can ease your everyday use of Git from the commandline.

[alias]

glog = log --all --decorate --oneline --graph

glogf = log --all --decorate --oneline --graph --pretty=fuller

st = status

out      = !git fetch && git log FETCH_HEAD..

outgoing = !git fetch && git log FETCH_HEAD..

in       = !git fetch && git log ..FETCH_HEAD

incoming = !git fetch && git log ..FETCH_HEAD

com = "!w() { git commit --all --message \"$1\";  }; w"

undopush = "!w() { git revert HEAD~\"$1\"..HEAD;  }; w"

searchlog = "!f() { git --no-pager log --color-words --all --decorate --graph -i --grep \"$1\";  }; f"

branches =  branch --verbose --sort=-committerdate --format '%(HEAD)%(color:yellow)%(refname:short)%(color:reset) -%(color:red)%(objectname:short)%(color:reset) - %(contents:subject) -%(authorname) (%(color:green)%(committerdate:relative)%(color:reset))'

allbranches = "!g() { git branch --all --verbose --sort=-committerdate --format '%(HEAD) %(color:yellow)%(refname:short)%(color:reset) -%(color:red)%(objectname:short)%(color:reset) - %(contents:subject) -%(authorname) (%(color:green)%(committerdate:relative)%(color:reset))' --color=always | less -R;  }; g"
verify = fsck
clearlocal = clean -fd && git reset 
stash-unapply = !git stash show -p | git apply -R 
lgb = log --graph --pretty=format:'%Cred%h%Creset -%C(yellow)%d%Creset %s %Cgreen(%cr) %C(bold blue)<%an>%Creset%n' --abbrev-commit --date=relative --branches tree = log --graph --pretty=format:'%Cred%h%Creset -%C(yellow)%d%Creset %s %Cgreen(%cr) %C(bold blue)<%an>%Creset%n' --abbrev-commit --date=relative --branches alltree = log --graph --pretty=format:'%Cred%h%Creset -%C(yellow)%d%Creset %s %Cgreen(%cr) %C(bold blue)<%an>%Creset%n' --date=relative --branches --all
latest = "!f() { echo "Latest \"${1:-11}\" commits accross all branches:"; git log  --abbrev-commit --date=relative --branches --all --pretty=format:'%Cred%h%Creset -%C(yellow)%d%Creset %s %Cgreen(%cr) %C(bold blue)<%an>%Creset%n' -n ${1:-11};  } ; f"
add-commit = !git add -A && git commit
showconfig = config --global -e

[merge]
tool = kdiff3

[mergetool "kdiff3"]
cmd = \"C:\\\\Program Files\\\\KDiff3\\\\kdiff3\" $BASE $LOCAL $REMOTE -o $MERGED [core]
editor = 'c:/program files/sublime text 3/subl.exe' -w

[core]
editor = 'c:/Program Files/Sublime Text 3/sublime_text.exe'

The best aliases are how you set up Sublime Text 3 as the Git editor and also how you can show the latest commits. The latest commits use a parametrized shell function. I set the default value to 11 in this case, if you do not give a parameter. You can for example show the latest 2 commits by typing: git latest 2

latest = "!f() { echo "Latest \"${1:-11}\" commits accross all branches:"; git log  --abbrev-commit --date=relative --branches --all --pretty=format:'%Cred%h%Creset -%C(yellow)%d%Creset %s %Cgreen(%cr) %C(bold blue)<%an>%Creset%n' -n ${1:-11};  } ; f"

Note the use of a shell function and also that we refer to the first parameter as ${1} i bash shell script, with a :-11 to set the first param as 11. The syntax is ${n:-p} where n is the nth parameter (not starting with zero!) and p is the default value. A special syntax, but that is how bash works. Also note that a git alias with a shell function can do multiple functions, separated with semi-colon ;. The searchlog alias / shell function is also handy:

searchlog = "!f() { git --no-pager log --color-words --all --decorate --graph -i --grep \"$1\";  }; f"

Also, multiple aliases here are similar to Mercurial's in and out commands to detect incoming pushed commits and outgoing local commits. Happy Git-ing!

Finding old Git Branches with WSL and Bash

Finding old branches in Git

I had to find out which branches in a Git repository was old and output it to a file. An old branch is defined to have no commits the last four months. Here is the bash script I ended up with.

#!/bin/bash
resolveOldBranches(){
branchfile="oldbranches.txt"
declare -i branchiteration=0
branchcount=$(git branch -a | wc -l)

if [ ! -e $branchfile ] ; then
 touch $branchfile
fi

#empty the oldbranch file
: > $branchfile

for k in $(git branch -a | sed /\*/d); do


 if [ -z "$(git log -1 --since='4 months ago' -s $k)" ]; then
  echo $k | cut -d/ -f3 >> $branchfile
 fi
 branchiteration=$branchiteration+1
 percentage= bc <<< "scale=2;($branchiteration/$branchcount)*100"


 read -n 1 -t 0.1 input                  # so read doesn't hang
   if [[ $input = "q" ]] || [[ $input = "Q" ]]
   then
      echo # to get a newline after 
echo -e "XXX\n$($percentage)\nAnalyzing $branchiteration of $branchcount $(bc <<< "scale=2;($branchiteration/$branchcount)*100") % done. \n(Exit: Q/q)... \nXXX"

done | whiptail --title "Resolving OpPlan 4 branch ages" --gauge "Analyzing.. (Press Q or q to exit)" 10 60 0


}

resolveOldBranches
cat $branchfile