Git Recovery and Reflog

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Git recovery patterns using reflog, ORIG_HEAD, fsck, dangling objects, and targeted reset or cherry-pick flows.

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Reflog Navigation

Read and use reflog entries to recover prior states.

Show reflog with dates

Display ref movements with timestamps.

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bashANYreflog

bash

git reflog --date=iso

Pretty-print reflog as log

View reflog entries using log output.

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bashANYrefloglog

bash

git log -g --oneline --decorate

Show previous HEAD

Inspect earlier HEAD position.

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bashANYreflogrecovery

bash

git show HEAD@{1}

Create branch from reflog entry

Preserve a reflog-discovered commit.

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bashANYreflogbranchrecovery

bash

git branch recovered HEAD@{3}

Reset to earlier HEAD

Restore prior branch tip exactly.

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bashANYreflogresetdanger

bash

git reset --hard HEAD@{1}

Common Recovery Scenarios

Recover from reset, deleted branch, bad merge, and lost stash mistakes.

Recover after hard reset

Restore previous HEAD after disruptive operation when ORIG_HEAD is available.

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bashANYrecoveryorig-head

bash

git reset --hard ORIG_HEAD

Recover deleted branch from reflog

Recreate a branch from recovered commit ID.

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bashANYrecoverybranch

bash

git checkout -b recovered <dangling_or_reflog_commit>

Undo failed merge

Restore pre-merge state when merge --abort is unavailable.

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bashANYrecoverymerge

bash

git reset --merge ORIG_HEAD

Find dropped stash commits

Locate dangling stash-like commits after accidental drop.

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bashANYrecoverystashfsck

bash

git fsck --no-reflog | grep dangling

Cherry-pick recovered commit

Apply recovered work onto a clean branch.

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bashANYrecoverycherry-pick

bash

git cherry-pick <recovered_commit_sha>

Dangling Objects and Inspection

Find unreferenced commits, blobs, and trees.

Check repository integrity

Validate objects and refs.

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bashANYfsckintegrity

bash

git fsck --full

List dangling objects

Find unreferenced commits, trees, and blobs.

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bashANYfsckdangling

bash

git fsck --full --dangling

Inspect dangling commit

Review commit content before recovery.

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bashANYfsckshow

bash

git show <dangling_commit_sha>

Inspect dangling blob

Print blob content if a file was lost.

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bashANYfsckblob

bash

git cat-file -p <blob_sha>

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