Git Tip - Resetting Master to A Previous Commit

I would argue that most of our git usage is pretty straight forward:

git add
git commit
git push
git branch
git co
git merge
git log
git diff

That covers literally 99% of what I have to do with git on a daily basis. So when you need to do something more complex it can be a bit disconcerting. Today I had to revert to a previous git hash and make that commit, from 2 days ago, master. Here's the process:

Note 1: If you want to preserve your previous master then do a git checkout from the pushed repo into a separate directory on your machine. Without this the git repo actually loses all the changes between the start and end of the hash you reverted to.

Use github to find the commit you want to revert to. This will be referred to as COMMIT_HASH
Commit everything currently in progress so you don't get any error messages about it. Or delete everything (I have a git trash alias which does checkout -f).
Change back to master with git co master
Use this command: git reset –hard COMMIT_HASH
Verify your changes are there with git log
This makes COMMIT_HASH your local master. However you will NOT be able to push because you have "time traveled" to the past. The secret here is to do a -f push so your changes are forced to the serve. Use this command: git push -f origin master

Note 2: In this case I didn't even try to preserve the changes made within that 2 day period. That's possible but definitely harder.

Note 3: The -f overwrites what's on the server since COMMIT_HASH so it will never be available. Please understand this well before doing this.

Note 4: My pairing buddy, Dv, helped out with this. Thanks man!

Note 5: Stack Overflow on git push -f