Git undo local branch delete

Question

I just deleted the wrong branch with some experimental changes I need with git branch -D branchName.

How do I recover the branch?

Answer 1

If you know the last SHA1 of the branch, you can try

git branch branchName <SHA1>

You can find the SHA1 using git reflog, described in the solution here.

Answer 2

Unless you committed the changes to the remote repository then

git checkout -f branchName

Answer 3

You can use git reflog to find the SHA1 of the last commit of the branch. From that point, you can recreate a branch using

git branch branchName <sha1>

Answer 4

First: back up your entire directory, including the .git directory.

Second: You can use git fsck --lost-found to obtain the ID of the lost commits.

Third: rebase or merge onto the lost commit.

Fourth: Always think twice before using -D or --force with git :)

You could also read this good discussion of how to recover from this kind of error.

EDIT: By the way, don't run git gc (or allow it to run by itself - i.e. don't run git fetch or anything similar) or you may lose your commits for ever.