# --skip-worktree and operations like checkout / stash /etc.

2 messages from 2018-09-27 to 2018-09-28. Participants: Raman Gupta.
Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/49446

## Raman Gupta, 2018-09-27 22:29

Subject: --skip-worktree and operations like checkout / stash /etc.
Message-ID: <CADF5XCygzArjd9rgY_x_BqnhL5QpFL1CO1JjOHnBQc3HFn_JdQ@mail.gmail.com>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/CADF5XCygzArjd9rgY_x_BqnhL5QpFL1CO1JjOHnBQc3HFn_JdQ%40mail.gmail.com

```
The comand `update-index --skip-worktree` seems to be an ideal way to
tell git to locally ignore some modified files. However, this seems
not to play well with very common commands like `checkout` and
`stash`.

$ git checkout other-branch
error: Your local changes to the following files would be overwritten
by checkout:
        path/to/ignored/file
Please commit your changes or stash them before you switch branches.
Aborting

Ok, well lets try stashing:

$ git stash save
No local changes to save

Ok, lets try a checkout with a merge:

$ git checkout -m other-branch
error: Entry 'path/to/ignored/file' not uptodate. Cannot merge.

Ok, lets force this sucker:

$ git checkout -f other-branch
error: Entry 'path/to/ignored/file' not uptodate. Cannot merge.

Ok, at this point I'm wondering, do I really need to
--no-skip-worktree all the ignored files, do my `checkout -m`, and
then ignore them again? Umm, no, that ain't gonna work.

I'd love for git to just check if my worktree-skipped changes will
merge cleanly into the target branch, and if they do so, go ahead and
do that merge (with perhaps a notification printed to the console) and
keep the skip worktree status. If the merge ends up with a conflict,
then feel free to no-worktree-skip it and show me merge conflicts.

Regards,
Raman

```

## Raman Gupta, 2018-09-28 13:35

Subject: Re: --skip-worktree and operations like checkout / stash /etc.
Message-ID: <CADF5XCxfmuqXau4YGrGgfU6JgxbHthZn5o5_t6J=x9JEaS_K4Q@mail.gmail.com>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/CADF5XCxfmuqXau4YGrGgfU6JgxbHthZn5o5_t6J%3Dx9JEaS_K4Q%40mail.gmail.com
In-Reply-To: <CADF5XCygzArjd9rgY_x_BqnhL5QpFL1CO1JjOHnBQc3HFn_JdQ@mail.gmail.com>

```
In the meantime I've created this simple script, but what a hack...

#!/bin/bash
git ls-files -v | grep "^S " | cut -c3- | readarray ignored
for x in "${ignored[@]}"; do
  git update-index --no-skip-worktree -- "$x"
done
git checkout -m $@
for x in "${ignored[@]}"; do
  git update-index --skip-worktree -- "$x"
done

Regards,
Raman
On Thu, Sep 27, 2018 at 6:29 PM Raman Gupta <rocketraman@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> The comand `update-index --skip-worktree` seems to be an ideal way to
> tell git to locally ignore some modified files. However, this seems
> not to play well with very common commands like `checkout` and
> `stash`.
>
> $ git checkout other-branch
> error: Your local changes to the following files would be overwritten
> by checkout:
>         path/to/ignored/file
> Please commit your changes or stash them before you switch branches.
> Aborting
>
> Ok, well lets try stashing:
>
> $ git stash save
> No local changes to save
>
> Ok, lets try a checkout with a merge:
>
> $ git checkout -m other-branch
> error: Entry 'path/to/ignored/file' not uptodate. Cannot merge.
>
> Ok, lets force this sucker:
>
> $ git checkout -f other-branch
> error: Entry 'path/to/ignored/file' not uptodate. Cannot merge.
>
> Ok, at this point I'm wondering, do I really need to
> --no-skip-worktree all the ignored files, do my `checkout -m`, and
> then ignore them again? Umm, no, that ain't gonna work.
>
> I'd love for git to just check if my worktree-skipped changes will
> merge cleanly into the target branch, and if they do so, go ahead and
> do that merge (with perhaps a notification printed to the console) and
> keep the skip worktree status. If the merge ends up with a conflict,
> then feel free to no-worktree-skip it and show me merge conflicts.
>
> Regards,
> Raman

```