How do I revert one file to its original state in git?

Question

I have a few files I made changes to.

Then I committed it and realized I made a change to a file I didn't want to change. How can I get the file back to its original state? I am on a branch.

git checkout --file

didn't do anything at all.

Answer 1

git checkout filename

will work in most cases, unless you have a branch with the same name as a file. In either case,

git checkout -- filename

will be sufficient.

Answer 2

You need a space between -- and your filename:

git checkout -- filename

Answer 3

Try

git checkout HEAD~ filename

instead.