From: Nikita Bobko <nikitabobko@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 23 Aug 2021 19:10:33 GMT
Subject: Re: git read-tree doesn't accept tree-ish
Message-ID: <CAMJzOtz_h0iEL1VQCFvvLzw3XnL+qM=f+BvkmsTU=ps+0VA7RA@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <YSPuq/HmF3tnYHCA@coredump.intra.peff.net>

Yes, now I see. Thanks!

I was trying to read state of a particular directory/file from a
particular revision into my index but so far didn't manage to do it
reliably.

I was using `git read-tree <hash>:<path>` and it doesn't work for
files (because they are blobs not tree-ish as you elaborated it to me)
and for directories, in my cases, it fails with not so helpful
message:
```
error: Entry '<path>/<subpath>' overlaps with '<path>/<subpath>'.  Cannot bind.
```

`git checkout <hash> -- <path>` also doesn't work in my case because
if any file is removed in `<hash>` but not in my HEAD then `git
checkout` doesn't remove the file in my HEAD

On Mon, Aug 23, 2021 at 8:53 PM Jeff King <peff@peff.net> wrote:
>
> On Mon, Aug 23, 2021 at 07:31:29PM +0200, Nikita Bobko wrote:
>
> > ```
> > git init
> > echo foo > foo
> > git add --all
> > git commit -m 'foo'
> >
> > echo bar > foo
> > git add --all
> > git commit -m 'bar'
> >
> > git read-tree HEAD~:foo
> > ```
> > EXP: Read information about file `foo` into index
> > ACT: `fatal: failed to unpack tree object HEAD~:foo`
> >
> > I expect it to work because manpage says that `git-read-tree` accepts
> > `<tree-ish>`
>
> In your example, "foo" is a blob, not a tree. And thus HEAD~:foo
> is not a tree-ish. Just "HEAD~" would be.
>
> What are you trying to do?
>
> -Peff