My cherry-pick deletes a single file, which does exist on the target, yet it does not auto complete. Why?

Question

I have a commit that deletes a single file:

C:\xyz\tmp55 [55 ↑1]> git show 17e645494
commit 17e6454949b44911bc42135e8f12c7f169ef835f
Author: Mark Kharitonov <bla-bla-bla>
Date:   Mon Nov 12 11:05:18 2018 -0500

    Some changes on MarkFeature

diff --git a/New Text Document.txt b/New Text Document.txt
deleted file mode 100644
index e69de29bb..000000000

The file exists on the target:

C:\xyz\tmp55 [55 ↑1]> dir '.\New Text Document.txt' -Name
New Text Document.txt

Yet the cherry-pick fails to auto complete:

C:\xyz\tmp55 [55 ↑1]> git cherry-pick 17e64549
warning: inexact rename detection was skipped due to too many files.
warning: you may want to set your merge.renamelimit variable to at least 7501 and retry the command.
error: could not apply 17e645494... Some changes on MarkFeature
hint: after resolving the conflicts, mark the corrected paths
hint: with 'git add <paths>' or 'git rm <paths>'
hint: and commit the result with 'git commit'
C:\xyz\tmp55 [55 ↑1 +0 ~0 -0 !1 | +0 ~0 -1 !]>

Why is that?

Perhaps the content of the file has changed? In that case a conflict is to be expected. — eftshift0, Nov 12 '18 at 17:00
Yes, the content may be different, but does it matter when the file is deleted? — mark, Nov 12 '18 at 17:00
@eftshift0 Yes, it seems likely. It would not have conflicted otherwise. Mark, you just need to remove the file from index (with `git rm`) and commit. — Romain Valeri, Nov 12 '18 at 17:01
I know how to resolve it. I want to understand what is going on — mark, Nov 12 '18 at 17:02
@eftshift0 You are right. I changed the content of the file to match exactly the delete one and it passed. Please, arrange your comment as the answer so I could credit you. — mark, Nov 12 '18 at 17:03

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 12 '18 at 17:13

The content of the file has probably changed and it makes sense that you get a conflict then. Imagine the situation. You delete a file on a branch, on another branch someone changed the file.... what should be the result when merging? A conflict is to be expected.

My cherry-pick deletes a single file, which does exist on the target, yet it does not auto complete. Why?

1 Answers1