How can I check out a particular version of one file in Git?

Question

How can I check out a particular version of one file in git?

I found this mail on the mailing list, which said:

$ git checkout HEAD~43 Makefile $ git reset Makefile 

But I don't understand how to find out 'HEAD~43', if I do a git log aFile, how can I find out which 'HEAD~43' I should use?

And why do I need to run git reset for that file? What does it do?

Answer 1

You know what commit (ie: the specific revision) the file belongs to? Then do:

git checkout <commit> <file> 

The other command:

git checkout HEAD~N <file> 

Is for when you want to get a version of the file from a range back (which I do for nostalgia).

Answer 2

HEAD~43 is just treeish, so you can use a hash or a tag. You have to separate treeish from the filename with --, otherwise it is treated as filename. For example.

git checkout v0.45 -- filename git checkout HEAD^ -- filename git checkout 16bb1a4eeaa9 -- filename