Rollback a specific migration file in Laravel

• How to Rollback Specific Migration Files in Laravel
• Understanding Laravel Migration Rollbacks
• Rollback a Specific Migration File
  • How It Works
• Rollback Multiple Specific Migration Files
• Reset or Refresh Specific Migration Files
  • Reset Specific Migration
  • Refresh Specific Migration

How to Rollback Specific Migration Files in Laravel

Rolling back migrations is a normal part of Laravel development. You might add a migration, test it, and then need to undo only that specific change without affecting others. Laravel makes this possible through the --path option, allowing you to target individual migration files precisely.

Understanding Laravel Migration Rollbacks

Laravel migrations are version-controlled database schema files. When you run php artisan migrate, each migration file is executed in order, and its name is recorded in the migrations table.

To undo migrations, Laravel provides the following key commands:

• php artisan migrate:rollback
• php artisan migrate:reset
• php artisan migrate:refresh

Each can be combined with the --path option to rollback specific files instead of all migrations.

Rollback a Specific Migration File

If you want to rollback a single specific migration, use the migrate:rollback command with the --path option.

php artisan migrate:rollback --path=/database/migrations/2024_11_04_123456_create_orders_table.php

How It Works

• The --path option tells Laravel which migration file to target.
• The path should be relative to the base Laravel project directory.
• Laravel will execute the down() method of that specific migration file only.

This is the most direct and correct way to rollback one migration without touching others.

Rollback Multiple Specific Migration Files

You can rollback multiple specific files by specifying each --path argument individually:

php artisan migrate:rollback \
--path=/database/migrations/2024_11_04_123456_create_orders_table.php \
--path=/database/migrations/2024_11_04_123457_add_status_to_orders_table.php

Each listed file will have its down() method executed in order, rolling back only those migrations.

Reset or Refresh Specific Migration Files

In addition to rolling back, Laravel also lets you reset or refresh specific migrations.

Reset Specific Migration

To completely reset (rollback all migrations), but limit the rollback to certain files:

php artisan migrate:reset --path=/database/migrations/2024_11_04_123456_create_orders_table.php

Refresh Specific Migration

To rollback and re-run the same migration (useful during testing):

php artisan migrate:refresh --path=/database/migrations/2024_11_04_123456_create_orders_table.php

This command will:

1. Run the down() method (rollback).
2. Immediately run the up() method again (reapply the migration).