Use @ instead of HEAD 25 August 2015 I recently found that from git version 1.8.5 onwards, @ can replace HEAD: $ git reset --hard @~2 $ git rebase -i @~10 $ git diff @~2..@~3 And also in most scenarios HEAD can be left out completely, so you can say: $ git reset -- @{2} instead of: $ git reset -- HEAD@{2} It takes some getting used to, but it’s definitely faster than typing HEAD.