From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Subject: Re: Why not git reset --hard <path>?
Date: Mon, 28 Sep 2015 15:58:14 -0700
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To: "George Spelvin" <linux@horizon.com>
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In-Reply-To: <20150928223607.15594.qmail@ns.horizon.com> (George Spelvin's
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"George Spelvin" <linux@horizon.com> writes:

> Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> wrote:
>> "git checkout HEAD <pathspec>" is a 99% acceptable substitute for it
>> (the only case where it makes a difference is when you added a path to
>> the index that did not exist in HEAD).
>
> Er, wait a minute...
>
> "git checkout <tree-ish> <pathspec>" modifies the index?
>
> Damn, I've been using git for years and I never knew that.

... which would be an indication that the behaviour is most likely
the most natural one.

> But I just tested, and it does.  Damn, now I have to figure out
> how to "leapfrog" a file from history into the working tree without
> overwriting the index; that's occasionally useful.

... and indeed it is useful in some rare cases.  Either

    git diff <tree-ish> <pathspec> | git apply -R

or

    git checkout <tree-ish> <pathspec> &&
    git reset <pathspec>

are what I would use, and as an old-timer, the former is what I do.