Reflog — Recovering Lost Commits
AdvancedThe reflog is Git's safety net — it records every change to HEAD and branch pointers for 90 days. You can recover commits lost to reset --hard, dropped rebases, or accidental branch deletions.
Overview
The reflog is the feature that makes Git nearly impossible to permanently corrupt during normal development. Every time HEAD moves — commit, checkout, merge, rebase, reset — Git appends a line to .git/logs/HEAD. This log persists for 90 days (configurable). Combined with git reset --hard to a reflog entry, you can recover almost anything: a commit reset --hard'd away, a branch accidentally deleted, work lost during a bad rebase. It is also the explanation for why "git reset --hard HEAD" is survivable.
Reading the Reflog
git reflog shows all recent HEAD positions with a short reference syntax HEAD@{n} where n is how many steps ago.
git reflog
# a3f8c12 HEAD@{0}: commit: Add payment gateway
# 9d2e441 HEAD@{1}: rebase -i (finish): returning to refs/heads/main
# 7b2e441 HEAD@{2}: rebase -i (squash): Implement payment
# 3d9f2e0 HEAD@{3}: rebase -i (pick): Add auth
# 2c1a8b7 HEAD@{4}: reset: moving to HEAD~3
# f1a2b3c HEAD@{5}: commit: Messy WIP commit ↠"lost" commit
# e9d8c7b HEAD@{6}: checkout: moving from feature to main
# Reflog for a specific branch
git reflog show feature/payment
# Reflog shows both hash AND the operation that moved HEAD
# This is how you find a "lost" commit hashRecovering Lost Commits
Once you have the hash or reflog reference of the lost commit, restore it with reset, checkout, or cherry-pick.
// Scenario: accidentally did git reset --hard HEAD~3
// Three commits are now "unreachable" — apparently lost
# Find the lost commits in reflog
git reflog
# a3f8c12 HEAD@{0}: reset: moving to HEAD~3 ↠the reset
# b4d7e9f HEAD@{1}: commit: Add login tests ↠lost commit 3
# c5e8f1a HEAD@{2}: commit: Fix auth flow ↠lost commit 2
# d6f9a2b HEAD@{3}: commit: Add user model ↠lost commit 1
# Recover by resetting HEAD to before the accident
git reset --hard HEAD@{1}
# Or by hash:
git reset --hard b4d7e9f
# Recover to a new branch (safest — preserves current state)
git switch -c recovered-work HEAD@{1}
# Also works: cherry-pick the lost commit onto current branch
git cherry-pick d6f9a2b
# If you don't know the hash, find dangling commits
git fsck --lost-found
# dangling commit d6f9a2b...Key Points to Remember
- 1git reflog records every HEAD movement for 90 days — it is Git's safety net
- 2HEAD@{n} syntax references how many HEAD positions ago (HEAD@{0} = current, HEAD@{1} = previous)
- 3Use git reflog to find the hash of a "lost" commit, then git reset --hard <hash> to recover
- 4git fsck --lost-found finds dangling objects not reachable from any ref
- 5Reflog is per-repository and local — it is NOT shared or pushed to remotes
Interview Questions
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