Recover deleted git branch from local

You are the boss of yourself, you deleted it, you recover it.

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Recover without diving into deep

Find the SHAfor the commit at the tip of your deleted branch using: Use git reflog to do so:

git reflog

To restore the branch, use:

git checkout -b <branch> <sha>

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This very important to understand that Git maintains a reference variable called HEAD. And we call this variable a pointer because its purpose is to reference, or point to, a specific commit in the repository. HEAD by default points to the tip of the current branch in our repository.

Another way to think of it is the last state of our repository or what was last checked out, and because it’s where the repository left off or the last state, you can also say that the HEAD points to the parent of the next commit or it’s where commit writing is going to take place.

Having said that it should be clear that when you create a new branch say test, a HEAD is created, when you do some changes and commit the changes, again a new HEAD is created. Now even if you leave this test branch and delete it, HEAD reference still persists which provides a door to recover the deleted branch.

git reflog gives all you need e.i. HEADs of all branches

Understanding git reflog by example

1: Let's check the reflog while I am at master branch.

~/w/git_demo ❯❯❯ git branch
* master
~/w/git_demo ❯❯❯ git reflog
ce656f5 HEAD@{0}: commit (initial): Initial commit

2: Let's create a new branch test do some changes and commit it.

~/w/git_demo ❯❯❯ git checkout -b test
Switched to a new branch 'test'
~/w/git_demo ❯❯❯ git branch
  master
* test
====> Did some changes in file while I'm on test branch <====
~/w/git_demo ❯❯❯ git add .
~/w/git_demo ❯❯❯ git commit -m "This is test branch commit after change"
[test 9867883] This is test branch commit after change
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)

3: Now let's check the reflog again.

~/w/git_demo ❯❯❯ git reflog
9867883 HEAD@{0}: commit: This is test branch commit after change
ce656f5 HEAD@{1}: checkout: moving from master to test
ce656f5 HEAD@{2}: commit (initial): Initial commit

Important

• A new HEAD → HEAD@{1} is created when we checked out to test branch. It refers to the top commit of test the branch which should be exactly the same as master branch’s commit since we did not change anything.
• Yes, it is. Note the SHA → ce656f5 is the same for master and test branch.
• Since we changed and committed on test branch our HEAD is moved up which is HEAD@{0} reflecting the topmost commit of the currenttest branch.

4: Its time to delete test branch.

~/w/git_demo ❯❯❯ git checkout master
Switched to branch 'master'
~/w/git_demo ❯❯❯ git branch
* master
  test
~/w/git_demo ❯❯❯ git branch -D test
Deleted branch test (was 9867883).
~/w/git_demo ❯❯❯ git branch
* master

5: What happens to reflog ?

~/w/git_demo ❯❯❯ git reflog
ce656f5 HEAD@{0}: checkout: moving from test to master
9867883 HEAD@{1}: commit: This is test branch commit after change
ce656f5 HEAD@{2}: checkout: moving from master to test
ce656f5 HEAD@{3}: commit (initial): Initial commit

Nothing, though test branch it deleted its top or latest commit still persists. This is life-saving. We got the door to enter. Now we have a reference to the deleted test branch. YAAHOOOOO!!

Getting it back…

~/w/git_demo ❯❯❯ git branch
* master
~/w/git_demo ❯❯❯ git checkout -b recovered_test 9867883
Switched to a new branch 'recovered_test'
~/w/git_demo ❯❯❯ git branch
  master
* recovered_test

Confused with 9867883? it's SHA of the deleted test. (refer step 5 snippet)

DONE!!

If you reach here, you nailed it!

Special thanks to Paul. :)