Switched Branch After .gitignore and lost .gitinored files

Question

I am new to git, so sorry if this question has already been answered. I'm having trouble finding the answer to this.

I wanted to ignore a set of files that had never been committed before for a commit and used the github app to select them and ignore them. I switched to another branch for a while and when I returned to my branch, my ignored files were gone.

Are these files deleted?

I used git checkout to switch back to the branch and then git status --ignored . My missing files are not there.

Git doesn't delete files. Use the command `git ls-files` and check if your files are listed. — William Seiti Mizuta, Feb 21 '13 at 05:48
I tried it and I didn't see my files. I'm on a mac, and I was able to find messages.sassc, and my other files through that search. The "c" on the end is not a normal part of the extension though. — Betsy Dupuis, Feb 21 '13 at 05:55
Oh, sorry I meant I found those files in finder. Finder shows the weird files. — Betsy Dupuis, Feb 21 '13 at 06:07
But they are under your repository? They just changed the name? — William Seiti Mizuta, Feb 21 '13 at 06:09
I just figured out that those files are from the Rails cache of the app I'm working on. — Betsy Dupuis, Feb 21 '13 at 06:11
It shows other ignored files, but not the ones that had not been committed before. — Betsy Dupuis, Feb 21 '13 at 06:25
`git rev-list --objects --all | grep messages.sass` shows any result? — William Seiti Mizuta, Feb 21 '13 at 06:28
It seems that your files were completely deleted. I don't know if it is a feature or bug. Maybe you can ask this in git main list. http://vger.kernel.org/vger-lists.html#git — William Seiti Mizuta, Feb 21 '13 at 06:43
Thank you for all of your help. It's at the point that the work is more important than recovering it. I did a "brain dump" while the work was still fresh in my head to churn out again. — Betsy Dupuis, Feb 22 '13 at 14:34

score 5 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

5

You can do this by using git reflog --all to get the SHA code from when the Github App automatically stashed your ignored files before switching to the other branch. See https://stackoverflow.com/a/8865242/2970321.

For example, I fetched a pull request (/pr/364) using the app (SHA 2ba129d). Before I switched back to gh-pages, it stashed my ignored files (SHA 36edfc6).

finding the SHA code of a dropped stash

So to recover, all I needed to do was:

git checkout 36edfc6

My files magically reappeared, and I was able to safely stash them manually somewhere else before switching back to gh-pages again.

edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

Community

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answered Jul 05 '15 at 20:54

alexw

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`--all` not `-all` – tenprint Apr 21 '18 at 00:04
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@tenprint thanks! You should have enough reputation to be able to suggest an edit directly (see https://stackoverflow.com/help/editing). – alexw Apr 21 '18 at 15:32
Hero! You saved me ;) – Chiel Feb 09 '21 at 13:42

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 16 '13 at 18:39

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git doesn't delete files it doesn't care about unless specifically told to do so (by checkout -f in some cases of checking out, or clean). As git knows nothing about them, it can't resurecct them either. Use git stash before moving around and doing possibly damaging stuff. Consider carefully which files go into .gitignore, add all non-automatically-generated files to version control.

answered Mar 16 '13 at 18:39

vonbrand

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It would seem (at least in recent versions of the github app) that ignored files are automatically stashed when you switch branches. See my answer. – alexw Jul 05 '15 at 20:57
"add all non-automatically-generated files to version control." Yes! The only exception might be really huge files like database backups -- in which case it's best to store it in an entirely different folder (or a permanently ignored subfolder). – Venryx Apr 19 '17 at 04:52

Adam · Answer 3 · 2019-04-05T11:39:24.430

Looks like you ignored the files in branch A, then switched to branch B but didn't ignore the files there.

If you ignore the files only in branch A but not in branch B, then they get deleted when switching back from B to A. However, they should reappear if you switch back from A to B.

This is normal git behavior if you checkout from any branch X to Y, all files that are not in branch Y but in branch X are removed. If a file is ignored in Y but not in X, then you have this case.

To prevent your files from being deleted, you may add them in the .gitignore file in your other branch B.

Switched Branch After .gitignore and lost .gitinored files

3 Answers3