git recover deleted file where no commit was made after the delete

Question

I deleted some files.

I did NOT commit yet.

I want to reset my workspace to recover the files.

I did a git checkout ..

But the deleted files are still missing.

And git status shows:

# On branch master # Changes to be committed: #   (use "git reset HEAD <file>..." to unstage) # #   deleted:    cc.properties #   deleted:    store/README #   deleted:    store/cc.properties # 

Why doesn't git checkout . reset the workspace to HEAD?

Answer 1

The output tells you what you need to do. git reset HEAD cc.properties etc.

This will unstage the rm operation. After that, running a git status again will tell you that you need to do a git checkout -- cc.properties to get the file back.

Update: I have this in my config file

$ git config alias.unstage reset HEAD 

which I usually use to unstage stuff.

Answer 2

You've staged the deletion so you need to do:

git checkout HEAD cc.properties store/README store/cc.properties 

git checkout . only checks out from the index where the deletion has already been staged.