Git checkout by date gives error on Windows

Question

I want to checkout from git and using commands from this SO-link. I am not sure what I am doing wrong here.

I have tried following commands.

git checkout `git rev-list -n 1 --before="2015-3-3 13:37:00" master`
git checkout `git rev-list 1 --before="2015-3-3 13:37:00" master`
git checkout `git rev-list -1 --before="2015-3-3 13:37:00" master`

and get the following error.

C:\Users\junaid\Documents\GitHub\bucardo [master]> git checkout `git rev-list -n 1 --before="2015-3-3 13:37:00" master`
error: unknown switch `n'
usage: git checkout [options] <branch>
   or: git checkout [options] [<branch>] -- <file>...

    -q, --quiet           suppress progress reporting
    -b <branch>           create and checkout a new branch
    -B <branch>           create/reset and checkout a branch
    -l                    create reflog for new branch
    --detach              detach the HEAD at named commit
    -t, --track           set upstream info for new branch
    --orphan <new branch>
                          new unparented branch
    -2, --ours            checkout our version for unmerged files
    -3, --theirs          checkout their version for unmerged files
    -f, --force           force checkout (throw away local modifications)
    -m, --merge           perform a 3-way merge with the new branch
    --overwrite-ignore    update ignored files (default)
    --conflict <style>    conflict style (merge or diff3)
    -p, --patch           select hunks interactively
    --ignore-skip-worktree-bits
                          do not limit pathspecs to sparse entries only

But following command works but I think, it can go back to 90 days only.

C:\Users\junaid\Documents\GitHub\bucardo [master]> git checkout 'master@{2015-3-27 18:30:00}'
warning: Log for 'master' only goes back to Thu, 17 Mar 2015 18:08:03 -0500.
Note: checking out 'master@{2015-07-27 18:30:00}'.

You are in 'detached HEAD' state. You can look around, make experimental
changes and commit them, and you can discard any commits you make in this
state without impacting any branches by performing another checkout.

If you want to create a new branch to retain commits you create, you may
do so (now or later) by using -b with the checkout command again. Example:

  git checkout -b new_branch_name

HEAD is now at cb4f95a... Start the cleanup of delete_rows()
C:\Users\junaid\Documents\GitHub\bucardo [(cb4f95a...)]>

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

In Bash (and many other Unixy shells) backticks are used for command substitution, e.g. see this description from The Linux Documentation Project:

Command substitution allows the output of a command to replace the command itself. Command substitution occurs when a command is enclosed like this:
$(command)
or like this using backticks:
`command`
Bash performs the expansion by executing COMMAND and replacing the command substitution with the standard output of the command, with any trailing newlines deleted. Embedded newlines are not deleted, but they may be removed during word splitting.
franky ~> echo `date`
Thu Feb 6 10:06:20 CET 2003

I don't think that cmd.exe supports real command substitution at all. It certainly doesn't treat backticks this way.

There are some workarounds that you can try, e.g. using for /f or temporary files, but these are awkward to use.

Depending on how you installed Git you might have access to a Bash shell on Windows that should work the way you want.

If you have access to PowerShell it looks like the $(...) syntax should work, which is also supported on Bash. posh-git has a good reputation as an environment for Git on PowerShell, though I've never used it personally.

Git checkout by date gives error on Windows

1 Answers1