Re: Request: `git restore $commit $file` shouldn’t override uncommited changes

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Apr 28, 2021, 07:23 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqqbl9yc1o6.fsf@gitster.g>
In-Reply-To: <pYZzGPZTHnJjYBKrUAVGcso74I_xJgfzNpSwDN94fhYcDoOamp62-IFvxVrU056uw0txy3MTHYSwny_II0XY4trSY5_E25q7EXwhNHjy3VY=@pm.me>

Robin Moussu <moussu.robin@pm.me> writes:

Show 7 quoted lines

> That’s the first time I’m interacting with the git community,
> I’m not very familiar with the process. I hope I’m at the right
> place for a feature request.
>
> Currently, I don’t think that it’s possible to get an error when
> copying the content of a file from another revision into your
> working tree if said file has uncommitted changes.

Yes, "git restore <from-where> <pathspec>" is like "I made a mess in the paths <pathspec> in the working tree and I want to start from a known state, so please take the contents for these paths from <from-where> and overwrite the garbage I have in the working tree".

It would be a grave regression to stop overwriting by default, as it misses the entire point of the command.

The same applies to "git checkout <from-where> -- <pathspec>".