error: Your local changes to the following files would be overwritten by checkout

Question

This question is similar to this one, but more specific.

I have a project with two branches: staging and beta. I develop on staging, and use the master branch to fix bugs. So if I'm working on staging and I see an error, I change to master branch:

git checkout master

and do the stuff:

git add fileToAdd
git commit -m "bug fixed"

and then I merge with both branches:

git checkout staging
git merge master
git checkout beta
git merge beta

And doesn't matter if there are other files on the working tree.

But now, when I try to change to the master branch, I'm getting an error:

error: Your local changes to the following files would be overwritten by checkout:
src/Pro/ConvocationBundle/Controller/DefaultController.php
Please, commit your changes or stash them before you can switch branches.
Aborting

I thought that I should remove the file from the staging area:

git reset HEAD src/Pro/ConvocationBundle/Controller/DefaultController.php

But I'm getting the same error. If I do git status, I get No changes to commit

Answer 1

Warning: Running this will discard local changes. Only run this if you want to discard local changes.

I encountered the same problem and solved it by

git checkout -f branch

and its specification is rather clear.

-f, --force

When switching branches, proceed even if the index or the working tree differs from HEAD. This is used to throw away local changes.

When checking out paths from the index, do not fail upon unmerged entries; instead, unmerged entries are ignored.

Answer 2

Your error appears when you have modified a file and the branch that you are switching to has changes for this file too (from latest merge point).

Your options, as I see it, are - commit, and then amend this commit with extra changes (you can modify commits in git, as long as they're not pushed); or - use stash:

git stash save your-file-name
git checkout master
# do whatever you had to do with master
git checkout staging
git stash pop

git stash save will create stash that contains your changes, but it isn't associated with any commit or even branch. git stash pop will apply latest stash entry to your current branch, restoring saved changes and removing it from stash.

Answer 3

You can force checkout your branch, if you do not want to commit your local changes.

git checkout -f branch_name

Answer 4

I encountered the same problem and solved it by

git checkout -f branch

Well, be careful with the -f switch. You will lose any uncommitted changes if you use the -f switch. While there may be some use cases where it is helpful to use -f, in most cases, you may want to stash your changes and then switch branches. The stashing procedure is explained above.