Undo git checkout overwrite of uncommitted files

Question

I had used the command git checkout -- $(git ls-files -m) to undo a git rm on some files. However, I had modified some other files without committing them, and these files have been reverted to their previous commit, losing the uncommitted changes.

Is there a way to get these changes back?
I imagine not with git as the changes weren't added to git. On a Mac if that helps.

Thanks Tom

Answer 1

By default you can't get it back, but you may be lucky in such an emergency situation and be able to retrieve a file that you accidentally clobbered by git checkout filename in the following ways:

• You may still have the file buffered in a text editor (for me I have found in my BBEdit text editor that, if I had it open, I can do an
  undo to get the file back (because it tends to be loaded to the
  current version if the file on disk is changed), and then save.
• Also if you have continuous backup running you might also be able to get back a version you edited. For example Apple Time Machine might
  have a version from only a short while ago.

Answer 2

"Does git checkout really silently overwrite uncommitted changes?"
And the answer is still "yes" in 2018 (just tested with 2.11)

It is true in August 2019, with Git 2.23, except there is now a more explicit git restore command

A simple git restore . would also restore the working tree silently, from the index content (so if the files were modified but not added to said index, their changes would still be lost)

But at least there is no confusion possible between checkout of files and of branch.