Re: Undo git-rm without commit?

From: Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
Date: Mar 26, 2008, 06:26 UTC
Message-ID: <20080326062635.GC26286@coredump.intra.peff.net>
In-Reply-To: <D6386C1A-92D3-4E11-8DE6-CC7553211A33@faithfulgeek.org>

On Wed, Mar 26, 2008 at 02:17:18AM -0400, Joe Fiorini wrote:

> I hadn't done a git-commit yet, but I used git-rm thinking it would  
> remove files that I had just added.  Instead, it deleted everything I had 
> added from the disk.  Is there a way to undo this?  I'm doubtful, but 
> would love to not have to rewrite what I was working on.

If by "added" you mean "git add"ed, then yes. The file is hashed and the blob is put in the object database during the add. Unfortunately, nothing actually _refers_ to it, so you will have to pick it out manually by its hash. Try:

  git fsck --lost-found

and then poke around .git/lost-found/other for your missing content.

As an aside, didn't git-rm warn you? While confirming that the command I was giving you was correct, I did this:

  git init
  echo content >file
  git add file
  git rm file

and got:

  error: 'file' has changes staged in the index
  (use --cached to keep the file, or -f to force removal)

-Peff