git checkout overload

Question

TL;DR I can't revert a file with git checkout if a branch has the same name.

I was working on my GIT repository when found a funny problem. We've a branch called "build-upload" where we are creating a new "upload" feature. We also have a file called "bin/build-upload", it's a script than builds the project and uploads it to production.

The thing is I was on the "bin/" directory and modified "build-upload" file and I want to revert it. So I typed

git checkout build-upload

And the result was

amatiasq:~/repo/bin$ git checkout build-upload
M   bin/build-upload
Switched to branch 'build-upload'

I didn't pay enought attention to the result, and continued working without realizing I was on another branch. Fortunately before I commit the new changes I saw "bin/build-upload" was modified and this led me to found I switched branch.

The question is. Is there a way to prevent this ambiguity? How can I tell git when I do "checkout" if I want to switch branch or revert a file?

If it hurts, _Just Don't Do It_. Take care to handle branches and tags as a separate namespace from files (oand from each other). — vonbrand, Mar 22 '13 at 19:51
Obviously it wasn't intentional, it was an accident I want to know how to face. — A. Matías Quezada, Mar 22 '13 at 20:12

score 7 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 22 '13 at 15:41

7

According to git help checkout, everything after a -- on the command line will be interpreted as a path, not a branch or tag. So, this should probably do what you need:

git checkout -- build-upload

answered Mar 22 '13 at 15:41

twalberg

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score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 22 '13 at 15:42

3

You have to put a '--' before the path part to eliminate ambiguity with branch names.

git checkout <branch> -- <paths..>

answered Mar 22 '13 at 15:42

antlersoft

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score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 22 '13 at 15:44

2

You could do git checkout ./build-upload to ensure that build-upload is treated as a filename. This is analogous to classic Unix tricks like rm ./-r to disambiguate a file named -r from the option -r.

answered Mar 22 '13 at 15:44

jjlin

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git checkout overload

3 Answers3