# Git: deleted a bunch of files accidentally, how to get them back?

You know the sinking feeling when you accidentally wipe out half of the repo
with a harmless-looking `rm -rf`. Don't worry, though. There’s a good chance of
getting it back.

## Deleted – nothing else after that

Just deletion, with no staging or other changes afterward. Checkout should do
the trick:

```shell
$ git checkout .
```

## Deleted – added to the staging area

File got deleted and then added to the staging area, at this point you noticed
that something’s wrong. The reset step is also explained in
[the guide to removing files from Git's staging area](/git-removing-files-from-the-staging-area-and-the-tree):

```shell
# Reset the head first
$ git reset HEAD <file>

# Then checkout
$ git checkout <file>

# Or if it’s a ton of files, then use the dot
$ git reset HEAD .
$ git checkout .
```

## Deleted — added, and committed

If you went the whole way and committed all the deletions, then rollback with
`reset` to the last commit. The following will roll back 1 commit:

```shell
$ git reset --hard HEAD~1
```

Or roll back to a specific commit ID:

```shell
$ git reset --hard 80789fa6a027b3ee3dec760e5784c61b7e4c9d17
```

Get the commit ID with `git log`.

## Takeaways

It’s relatively hard to delete anything permanently in Git.

Also, see this
[nice thread on the dangers of `rm`](https://serverfault.com/questions/337082/how-do-i-prevent-accidental-rm-rf)
and how to safeguard yourself from yourself.