threads / discuss / 7277

Directory in one branch, file in another = can't switch branches

Subject: Directory in one branch, file in another = can't switch branches

## tl;dr

2 messages between Mar 16, 2007 and Mar 16, 2007.

replies: 1people: 1as markdown or json

Steven Grimm· Mar 16, 2007, 22:17 UTC · lore

We've hit this problem with a git-svn-based repository where some stuff got reorganized, but it happens in plain git too; if you have a branch with a file called, say, "foo" and another branch with a file called "foo/bar", you can't switch between branches even if there are no uncommitted edits in either branch.

To reproduce (I'm using version 1.5.0.1.74.g2470):
% git init-db
Initialized empty Git repository in .git/
% echo "this is a test file" > testing
% git add testing
% git commit -a -m "initial commit on master"
Created initial commit 1a9cb1bf3a5475f0bb05d1e7c59839ba0a388be7
 1 files changed, 1 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
 create mode 100644 testing
% git checkout -b with-dir
Switched to a new branch "with-dir"
% mv testing testing-
% mkdir testing
% mv testing- testing/datafile
% git add testing/datafile
% git commit -a -m "commit with subdir"      
Created commit cdcb2af2a8dae8a2c5c3c143cb00b4863291cc17
 2 files changed, 1 insertions(+), 1 deletions(-)
 delete mode 100644 testing
 create mode 100644 testing/datafile
% git checkout master
fatal: Untracked working tree file 'testing' would be overwritten by merge.

You can work around it by renaming the directory, but git should really blow away the directory if it doesn't contain any untracked / modified files.

-Steve
Steven Grimm· Mar 16, 2007, 22:59 UTC · re: Steven Grimm · lore

Re: Directory in one branch, file in another = can't switch branches

Ah, I see someone else picked up on this from IRC already ("bug in read-tree -m on A -> A/A"). Sorry for the noise; please ignore this thread.

-Steve
Steven Grimm wrote:
Show 41 quoted lines
> We've hit this problem with a git-svn-based repository where some 
> stuff got reorganized, but it happens in plain git too; if you have a 
> branch with a file called, say, "foo" and another branch with a file 
> called "foo/bar", you can't switch between branches even if there are 
> no uncommitted edits in either branch.
>
> To reproduce (I'm using version 1.5.0.1.74.g2470):
>
> % git init-db
> Initialized empty Git repository in .git/
> % echo "this is a test file" > testing
> % git add testing
> % git commit -a -m "initial commit on master"
> Created initial commit 1a9cb1bf3a5475f0bb05d1e7c59839ba0a388be7
> 1 files changed, 1 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
> create mode 100644 testing
> % git checkout -b with-dir
> Switched to a new branch "with-dir"
> % mv testing testing-
> % mkdir testing
> % mv testing- testing/datafile
> % git add testing/datafile
> % git commit -a -m "commit with subdir"      Created commit 
> cdcb2af2a8dae8a2c5c3c143cb00b4863291cc17
> 2 files changed, 1 insertions(+), 1 deletions(-)
> delete mode 100644 testing
> create mode 100644 testing/datafile
> % git checkout master
> fatal: Untracked working tree file 'testing' would be overwritten by 
> merge.
>
> You can work around it by renaming the directory, but git should 
> really blow away the directory if it doesn't contain any untracked / 
> modified files.
>
> -Steve
> -
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