RE: Suggestion: make git checkout safer

From: Randall S. Becker <rsbecker@nexbridge.com>
Date: Jun 3, 2015, 17:49 UTC
Message-ID: <004801d09e25$a339b0f0$e9ad12d0$@nexbridge.com>
In-Reply-To: <xmqqh9qoy9sx.fsf@gitster.dls.corp.google.com>

On June 3, 2015 1:35 PM Junio C Hamano wrote:

> Ed Avis <eda@waniasset.com> writes:
> > If my personal experience is anything to go by, newcomers may fall
> > into the habit of running 'git checkout .' to restore missing files.
> Is that really true?  It all depends on why you came to a situation to

have

> "missing files" in the first place, I would think, but "git checkout

$path" is "I

> messed up the version in the working tree at $path, and want to restore

them".

> One particular kind of "I messed up" may be "I deleted by mistake" (hence
> making them "missing"), but is it so common to delete things by mistake,

as

> opposed to editing, making a mess and realizing that the work so far was

not

> improving things and wanting to restart from scratch?

When working in an IDE like ECLIPSE or MonoDevelop, accidentally hitting the DEL button or a drag-drop move is a fairly common trigger for the "Wait-No-Stop-Oh-Drats" process which includes running git checkout to recover. My keyboard is excessively sensitive static, so this happens more often than I will admit (shamelessly blaming hardware when it really is a user problem). Git checkout is a life-saver in this case as is frequently committing. :)

Cheers, Randall

-- Brief whoami: NonStop&UNIX developer since approximately UNIX(421664400)/NonStop(211288444200000000) -- In my real life, I talk too much.