How can I merge code in a zip file from an old version of a repository with the latest version?

Question

I'm fairly new to git and only know the basics. I've tried to find information on this, but maybe I'm just not capable of expressing what I need to do in search terms.

My company hired a 3rd party developer that took code from a known repository and made changes. Unfortunately, they did not document any of their changes with comments. We were given a zip file, with only a rough assumption of what version the code was originally cloned from. However, we need to keep their changes AND update to the latest version on the live repository. What is the best way to handle this with git? The zip file only contains the files from the repo, no git versioning history.

Can someone please offer advice on how to ensure we're using the latest code without losing their changes?

Answer 1

I don't think the other answers are really tackling the problem from the root: find the revisión where the development of the zip started. Create a branch in that revision and check it out. Then remove everything from your working tree (don't mess with .git directory, just in case), replace the content with the zip, git add everything and create a new revision.... something like git commit -m "the zip". Now you can go to whatever branch and merge the branch that you created for this..... or rebase it, whatever you need.