{"thread":{"id":"55469","subject":"difftool and new files","startedAt":"2021-04-10T03:26:33Z","lastAt":"2021-04-10T03:26:33Z","messageCount":1,"participants":["Robert Dailey"],"isPatch":false,"patchVersion":null,"patchTotal":null},"messages":[{"id":"421515","messageId":"CAHd499A6XNPOPA+EA+TQKhkaH2ps5S7km-CGU+DdSA3vSVTmqQ@mail.gmail.com","threadId":"55469","inReplyTo":null,"subject":"difftool and new files","fromName":"Robert Dailey","fromEmail":"rcdailey.lists@gmail.com","sentAt":"2021-04-10T03:25:13Z","receivedAt":"2021-04-10T03:26:33Z","isPatch":false,"sender":{"key":"rcdailey.lists@gmail.com","avatar":null},"body":"When I do `git difftool -d @^^`, I get a left & right directory. My\nunderstanding is that the left directory represents 2 commits worth of\ndiffs and the right one represents my \"working copy\".\n\nIn my case, my difftool is beyond compare 4 on Windows. In that\ndifftool, I have symlinks enabled. I also prefer this to avoid copies\nwhen doing large diffs.\n\nWhen I move changes to *existing* files from left to right, in other\nwords I'm modifying a file already in my working copy, those changes\nare persisted when I close my difftool. This is working as expected.\n\nHowever, let's say in my tip commit, I deleted a file. But since I'm\ndiffing further back, I can attempt to restore that deleted file to my\nworking copy by moving it from left to right. From Beyond Compare's\nperspective, this particular file exists on the left, but not the\nright side. My expectation is that when a new file is created on the\nright, that that file appears in my working copy when I close the diff\ntool. However, that is not the case. The file appears to be moved over\nduring the diff, but the result is not retained. The file is still\nmissing in my working copy and any changes I made to it in beyond\ncompare are seemingly lost.\n\nI imagine this is working by design. It makes sense that git only\nwatches for changes *to existing files* in the temp directories. It\nprobably just ignores any files that were not originally on the right\nside to begin with.\n\nMy ask here is to see if there is any way to get this to work as I\nexpect. It's convenient to be able to restore deleted files inside\ndifftool, so I'm wondering if this is possible somehow.\n"}]}