Re: how do i re-add a file?

There are at least a couple of ways to do this.

git show <revision>:<file_name>

e.g. git show HEAD^:builtin-log.c

That will output the content to the console of the file 'builtin-log.c' at the parent revision of the current commit. You can redirect it to a file if you want.

git checkout <rev> <file_name>

e.g. git checkout HEAD^ builtin-log.c

Works the same as above, except the file will be written to your working tree without you having to redirect the output to a file.

Take a look at the help for 'checkout' and 'show'. (e.g. git checkout --help )

In the above examples, 'HEAD^' is just a shortcut for specifying a revision without entering the entire SHA1 of the commit. See http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-rev-parse.html for more information on the various ways you can specify revisions.

Another way to look at file content at a particular revision is via the 'gitk' GUI tool that comes with git. Fire it up by entering 'gitk' at the command line while inside your repo. In the pane on the left, select the revision that you are interested in. On the bottom-right pane, select the radio button labeled 'tree' and navigate through that to find you file. When you select it, the content of the file will be displayed on the bottom-left pane.