How do I copy a version of a single file from one Git branch to another?

Question

I've got two branches that are fully merged together.

However, after the merge is done, I realise that one file has been messed up by the merge (someone else did an auto-format, gah), and it would just be easier to change to the new version in the other branch, and then reinsert my one line change after bringing it over into my branch.

So what's the easiest way in Git to do this?

Answer 1

Run this from the branch where you want the file to end up:

git checkout otherbranch myfile.txt

General formulas:

git checkout <commit_hash> <relative_path_to_file_or_dir>
git checkout <remote_name>/<branch_name> <file_or_dir>

Some notes (from comments):

• Using the commit hash, you can pull files from any commit
• This works for files and directories
• Overwrites the file myfile.txt and mydir
• Wildcards don't work, but relative paths do
• Multiple paths can be specified

An alternative:

git show commit_id:path/to/file > path/to/file

Answer 2

I would use git restore (available since Git 2.23):

git restore --source otherbranch path/to/myfile.txt

---

Why is better than other options?

• by default git restore modify files only in working directory.

git checkout otherbranch -- path/to/myfile.txt copy file to working directory (your files on disk) but also to staging area. It's similar effect as if you would copy this file manually and executed git add on it. git restore by default change only working directory.

To get the same result as for git checkout otherbranch -- path/to/myfile.txt you can write git restore --source otherbranch --staged --worktree path/to/myfile.txt

• by default git restore deletes files from working directory when they are missing in other branch

git restore can be used to restore the whole folder with git restore --source otherbranch path/to/dir. You can do similar operation with git checkout but git restore by default will delete files that are missing on otherbranch. To get git checkout behaviour use --overlay option.

For example, if there are fewer files on otherbranch than in the current working directory (and these files are tracked) without --overlay option git restore will delete them. But this is good default behaviour, you most likely want the state of directory to be "the same like in otherbranch", not "the same like in otherbranch but with additional files from my current branch".

To get the same result as for git checkout otherbranch -- path/to/dir you can write git restore --source otherbranch --staged --worktree --overlay path/to/dir

• git restore doesn't use shell redirection to create file (Powershell only problem)

git show otherbranch:path/to/myfile.txt > path/to/myfile.txt uses standard shell redirection. If you use PowerShell then there might be problem with text encoding or you could get broken file if it's binary. With git restore changing files is done all by the git executable.

Answer 3

I ended up at this question on a similar search. In my case I was looking to extract a file from another branch into current working directory that was different from the file's original location. Answer:

git show TREEISH:path/to/file > path/to/local/file