threads / discuss / 19404

Git screwup with reset

Subject: Git screwup with reset

## tl;dr

3 messages between May 18, 2009 and May 18, 2009.

replies: 2people: 3as markdown or json

jake varghese· May 18, 2009, 14:58 UTC · lore
Hi All,

I really screwed up. I had about 2 weeks worth of code I was working on that got reset right out before commit.

Here's what happened.
1.  I coded for 2 weeks and didnt commit or add anything (yes, i  
know, real stupid)
2.  I was attempting to commit today and added the files.
3.  I realized a couple of files were added that i didnt want and  
werent being matched to the gitignore because i spelled them wrong.   
I fixed the gitignore file but the files still showed up, Im guessing  
because i used "git add ." before.
4.  Then i ran git reset --hard because i just wanted to undo the  
add.  Clearly this was where everything fell apart.
5.  I lost 2 weeks worth of code.
That's basically how it happened.

When I run git fsck --lost-found i get a whole bunch of dangling objects. If I run git show on those objects it shows me the code that was lost. Anyone know of a way to get this stuff back. I tried rebasing and merging and neither worked.

Thanks in advance,

Jake Varghese OrgSync Inc. 866.ORG.SYNC jake@orgsync.com www.orgsync.com

Shawn O. Pearce· May 18, 2009, 15:08 UTC · re: jake varghese · lore

Re: Git screwup with reset

jake varghese <jake@orgsync.com> wrote:
> When I run git fsck --lost-found i get a whole bunch of dangling  
> objects.  If I run git show on those objects it shows me the code that 
> was lost.  Anyone know of a way to get this stuff back.  I tried  
> rebasing and merging and neither worked.
For each of those dangling blobs:
  git cat-file blob $sha1 >$path

where you need to manually figure out the relationship between $sha1 and the local $path within your project. Git doesn't have that relationship data, because you never made a commit.

Oh, and next time, commit like every hour, or more frequently than that. At worst, you'll need to do a "git merge --squash" near the end to flatten out your silly "save my work" checkpoints and draft a more useful commit message for your coworkers. But at least you lose less when you have a "git reset --hard" fat finger accident.

-- 
Shawn.
Sverre Rabbelier· May 18, 2009, 15:11 UTC · re: jake varghese · lore

Re: Git screwup with reset

Heya,
On Mon, May 18, 2009 at 16:58, jake varghese <jake@orgsync.com> wrote:
>  Anyone know of a way to get this stuff back.

Make a backup copy of that .git directory, so that whatever you do you won't lose that work ;). Also, the reason you can't merge or rebase that hash is because it's the hash of a tree or a blob, not a commit. You can use git commit-tree [0] to create a commit from your lost tree, but that works only if you have a tree (for just a blob you can use git cat-file [1])

[0] http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-commit-tree.html [1] http://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-cat-file.html

-- 
Cheers,

Sverre Rabbelier

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