Re: Git checkout preserve timestamp?

From: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
Date: Mar 1, 2007, 22:13 UTC
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.63.0703012304200.22628@wbgn013.biozentrum.uni-wuerzburg.de>
In-Reply-To: <17895.18265.710811.536526@lisa.zopyra.com>

Hi Bill,

On Thu, 1 Mar 2007, Bill Lear wrote:

> I often find myself in branch A, with everything checked in and 
> compiled, wanting to look at something on branch B.

I did that, too, until git-show learnt about the nice ":" syntax.

For example, if I want to know what is in branch B, I do

	$ git show B:

which shows the root directory of the revision "B" (this is in line with <commit>:<pathspec> if you interpret "" as the root path). The subtrees are all identified by trailing slashes. Then you can say

	$ git show B:Documentation/Makefile

If you want to know the differences to the file "doc/GNUMakefile" in your current working tree, do

	$ git diff B:Documentation/Makefile -- doc/GNUMakefile

No need to switch branches.

And if you _do_ need to switch branches, why not make a local clone, sharing the object database:

	$ git clone -l -s . test-directory

This is _very_ fast, since it basically checks out the branches in test-directory/. Right now, you have to go to the test-directory, and switch the branches manually (I think), but talk has been that you may be able to tell git-clone which branch you really want.

Hth, Dscho