Re: [PATCH 0/8] introduce no-overlay and cached mode in git checkout

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Dec 10, 2018, 03:47 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqqa7le2gc2.fsf@gitster-ct.c.googlers.com>
In-Reply-To: <20181209200449.16342-1-t.gummerer@gmail.com>

Thomas Gummerer <t.gummerer@gmail.com> writes:

> Basically the idea is to also delete files when the match <pathspec>
> in 'git checkout <tree-ish> -- <pathspec>' in the current tree, but
> don't match <pathspec> in <tree-ish>.

I cannot quite parse it, but perhaps.

	"git checkout --no-overlay <tree-ish> -- <pathspec>" can
	remove paths in the index and in the working tree that match
	<pathspec>, if they do not appear in <tree-ish>.

If a new file D/F is in the index and in the working tree but not in HEAD, "git checkout HEAD D/" or "git checkout HEAD D/F" would not remove D/F from the index or the working tree.

With the --no-overlay option, it would, and that is often closer to the wish of the user who wanted to say "restore the working tree state of D/ (or D/F) from the state recorded in HEAD".

> The final step in the series is to actually make use of this in 'git
> stash', which simplifies the code there a bit.  I am however happy to
> hold off on this step until the stash-in-C series is merged, so we
> don't delay that further.

I think that is probably a good idea, for now.

Show 5 quoted lines

> In addition to the no-overlay mode, we also add a --cached mode, which
> works only on the index, thus similar to 'git reset <tree-ish> -- <pathspec>'.
>
> Actually deprecating 'git reset <tree-ish> -- <pathspec>' should come
> later,...

Or we may not even need to deprecate it. IIRC, what "stash" wished to exist was "git reset --hard <tree-ish> -- <pathspec>", which, if the command followed "--cached/--index" convention, would have been called "git reset --index ...". Did we actually have the need for "--cached" mode?

> probably not before Duy's restore-files command lands, as 'git
> checkout --no-overlay <tree-ish> -- <pathspec>' is a bit cumbersome to
> type compared to 'git reset <tree-ish> -- <pathspec>'.

Yes, between "checkout --cached" and "checkout --no-overlay", the latter is much more important, as the latter is what a missing "git reset --hard <tree-ish> -- <pathspec>" would have been, but the former can be written with an existing command.

> My hope is also that the no-overlay mode could become the new default
> in the restore-files command Duy is currently working on.

Yup, that is my hope, too ;-).