Using `git clean` in a folder deleted its contents

Question

I was trying to use Git in a folder then I used git glean -df and I found everything gone.

Does that mean I lost my files and is there any way to get them back?

Answer 1

When you ran git clean -df you asked Git to

Remove untracked files from the working tree

including directories. You also told Git to ignore its safety net.

If Git knows about the files (i.e. if they've ever been added or stashed, even if they were never commited) then they should be recoverable. Try running git fsck --cache --no-reflogs --lost-found --unreachable and then looking in .git/lost-found/ for objects that you deleted.

Otherwise there is no way for Git to retrieve them; you'll have to rely on other tools like an existing backup, filesystem snapshots, file synchronization tools, or filesystem recovery tools.