# git bisect/checkout and changes to .gitignore 4 messages from 2012-06-22 to 2012-06-22. Participants: Chris Angelico, Johannes Sixt, Junio C Hamano. Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/30864 ## Chris Angelico, 2012-06-22 07:51 Subject: git bisect/checkout and changes to .gitignore Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/CAPTjJmq4zv6dBR2Z-HfM7CJoxfprSdJEYYELuyBfahw2PkZ4Lw%40mail.gmail.com ``` Greetings! I'm not certain if this list or the git-users group is more appropriate; my apologies if I've picked wrong. At my workplace we use git to manage all of our source code. Every now and then, we decide that some particular file oughtn't to be git-managed, and add it into .gitignore and remove it from the repository (for instance, configuration files that become per-developer). Is there a way to checkout an old version of the repository (before the file was added to .gitignore), then return to the current state, without destroying these sorts of files? Currently, checking out the old version quietly "takes control" of the file, and then checking out a newer one deletes it. I've read through the man pages for 'git checkout' and 'gitignore' and searched the one for 'git config' (it's a little large to read all of), without seeing an option to preserve files on checkout. Is there a way to do this, and if so, where can I find it? Thanks in advance! Chris Angelico ``` ## Johannes Sixt, 2012-06-22 10:31 Subject: Re: git bisect/checkout and changes to .gitignore Message-ID: <4FE44983.30209@viscovery.net> URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/4FE44983.30209%40viscovery.net In-Reply-To: ``` Am 6/22/2012 9:51, schrieb Chris Angelico: > At my workplace we use git to manage all of our source code. Every now > and then, we decide that some particular file oughtn't to be > git-managed, and add it into .gitignore and remove it from the > repository (for instance, configuration files that become > per-developer). > > Is there a way to checkout an old version of the repository (before > the file was added to .gitignore), then return to the current state, > without destroying these sorts of files? Currently, checking out the > old version quietly "takes control" of the file, and then checking out > a newer one deletes it. > > I've read through the man pages for 'git checkout' and 'gitignore' and > searched the one for 'git config' (it's a little large to read all > of), without seeing an option to preserve files on checkout. Is there > a way to do this, and if so, where can I find it? Files mentioned in .gitignore are considered garbage. But your file is precious, hence, you should not list it in .gitignore. Here is a thread that is worthwhile to read. I posted a patch http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.version-control.git/185724/focus=185733 but it was dismissed, see http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.version-control.git/185724/focus=185746 -- Hannes ``` ## Chris Angelico, 2012-06-22 12:07 Subject: Re: git bisect/checkout and changes to .gitignore Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/CAPTjJmqw6hC_SnWiNOfcebzu4ywWkvLNOG8pbi_D%2BrBnQYenMw%40mail.gmail.com In-Reply-To: <4FE44983.30209@viscovery.net> ``` On Fri, Jun 22, 2012 at 8:31 PM, Johannes Sixt wrote: > Files mentioned in .gitignore are considered garbage. But your file is > precious, hence, you should not list it in .gitignore. An important distinction! Thanks for the thread pointer. The --no-overwrite-ignore flag is part of what I want. It at least gives protection against accidentally losing things (on Wednesday, I unwittingly disposed of several large binary files, and didn't even know about it until a chance discovery of directory size). Is there a way to specify that this flag always be used, even when the checkout doesn't happen on the command line but through (eg) git bisect? Chris Angelico ``` ## Junio C Hamano, 2012-06-22 17:42 Subject: Re: git bisect/checkout and changes to .gitignore Message-ID: <7vbokbqm3v.fsf@alter.siamese.dyndns.org> URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/7vbokbqm3v.fsf%40alter.siamese.dyndns.org In-Reply-To: <4FE44983.30209@viscovery.net> ``` Johannes Sixt writes: > Here is a thread that is worthwhile to read. I posted a patch > > http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.version-control.git/185724/focus=185733 > > but it was dismissed, see > > http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.version-control.git/185724/focus=185746 Thanks. Two thoughts and a half. - For people who do not want to read the above, the patch in the former was not a change to the code, but was a demonstration to exploit a bug in .git/ignore/exclude handling. - The latter message above outlined a future direction to properly handle "ignored" vs "precious" distinction. - There probably are other "here is a way forward" messages in the list archive whose visions haven't been materialized. Is anybody collecting these? I suspect that such a collection would be far more useful than a typical bug tracker that nobody looks at. ```