Git & GitHub Interview Question #55

What is git revert and when should it be used?

Undo & Recovery, Tags, Forks, Pull Requests & Code Review Mid-Level Intermediate

Quick Interview Answer

git revert creates a new commit that reverses the changes introduced by an earlier commit. The original commit remains in history.

Detailed Explanation

git revert creates a new commit that reverses the changes introduced by an earlier commit. The original commit remains in history.

This makes revert especially useful for shared branches because it preserves published history instead of rewriting it. Conflicts can still occur if later changes overlap with the commit being reverted.

Code Example

git revert <commit-id>

# Review the new history
git log --oneline