three questions: proper forum? & reverting changes to the working directory

three questions: proper forum? & reverting changes to the working directory

[McKown, John]

1) is this the proper forum for asking general git usage questions, such as "how to"? If not, what is?

2) I am unsure that I did things the "proper" way. I have a git maintained subdirectory. I made some changes and saved them in the working directory, but did not "git add" or "git commit" them. I then decided that I really messed up what I was doing (basically reformatting some source code). So to revert the changes back to what was last committed, I did a "git reset --hard HEAD". I think this is the proper way. But I picked up that command in the section of the documentation which was talking about abandoning a "git merge" attempt. What I did worked, but is it the proper way? If not, what is? 

3) More generically, suppose I have a file in my working directory that I want to put back the way it was "n" commits ago. The best that I can see, so far, is "git show HEAD~n:file >|file", replacing the "n" and "file" with appropriate values. 

-- 
John McKown
Systems Engineer IV
IT

Administrative Services Group

HealthMarkets(r)

9151 Boulevard 26 * N. Richland Hills * TX 76010
(817) 255-3225 phone *
john.mckown@healthmarkets.com * www.HealthMarkets.com

Confidentiality Notice: This e-mail message may contain confidential or proprietary information. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original message. HealthMarkets(r) is the brand name for products underwritten and issued by the insurance subsidiaries of HealthMarkets, Inc. -The Chesapeake Life Insurance Company(r), Mid-West National Life Insurance Company of TennesseeSM and The MEGA Life and Health Insurance Company.SM

RE: three questions: proper forum? & reverting changes to the working directory

[McKown, John]

Well, a message I read after posting seems to have answered question #3. I'll look at "git checkout", which ignorant me thought was only used to change branches.

-- 
John McKown
Systems Engineer IV
IT

Administrative Services Group

HealthMarkets(r)

9151 Boulevard 26 * N. Richland Hills * TX 76010
(817) 255-3225 phone *
john.mckown@healthmarkets.com * www.HealthMarkets.com

Confidentiality Notice: This e-mail message may contain confidential or proprietary information. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original message. HealthMarkets(r) is the brand name for products underwritten and issued by the insurance subsidiaries of HealthMarkets, Inc. -The Chesapeake Life Insurance Company(r), Mid-West National Life Insurance Company of TennesseeSM and The MEGA Life and Health Insurance Company.SM


> -----Original Message-----
> From: git-owner@vger.kernel.org [mailto:git-owner@vger.kernel.org] On
> Behalf Of McKown, John
> Sent: Thursday, November 08, 2012 8:26 AM
> To: 'git@vger.kernel.org'
> Subject: three questions: proper forum? & reverting changes to the
> working directory
> 
> 1) is this the proper forum for asking general git usage questions,
> such as "how to"? If not, what is?
> 
> 2) I am unsure that I did things the "proper" way. I have a git
> maintained subdirectory. I made some changes and saved them in the
> working directory, but did not "git add" or "git commit" them. I then
> decided that I really messed up what I was doing (basically
> reformatting some source code). So to revert the changes back to what
> was last committed, I did a "git reset --hard HEAD". I think this is
> the proper way. But I picked up that command in the section of the
> documentation which was talking about abandoning a "git merge" attempt.
> What I did worked, but is it the proper way? If not, what is?
> 
> 3) More generically, suppose I have a file in my working directory that
> I want to put back the way it was "n" commits ago. The best that I can
> see, so far, is "git show HEAD~n:file >|file", replacing the "n" and
> "file" with appropriate values.
> 
> --
> John McKown
> Systems Engineer IV
> IT
> 
> Administrative Services Group
> 
> HealthMarkets(r)
> 
> 9151 Boulevard 26 * N. Richland Hills * TX 76010
> (817) 255-3225 phone *
> john.mckown@healthmarkets.com * www.HealthMarkets.com
> 
> Confidentiality Notice: This e-mail message may contain confidential or
> proprietary information. If you are not the intended recipient, please
> contact the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the
> original message. HealthMarkets(r) is the brand name for products
> underwritten and issued by the insurance subsidiaries of HealthMarkets,
> Inc. -The Chesapeake Life Insurance Company(r), Mid-West National Life
> Insurance Company of TennesseeSM and The MEGA Life and Health Insurance
> Company.SM
> 
> 
> --
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe git" in the
> body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at
> http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html

Re: three questions: proper forum? & reverting changes to the working directory

[Konstantin Khomoutov]

On Thu, 8 Nov 2012 08:26:22 -0600
"McKown, John" <John.McKown@healthmarkets.com> wrote:

> 1) is this the proper forum for asking general git usage questions,
> such as "how to"? If not, what is?

This list is okay for the general usage questions.
But since it's the place where the development questions are discussed
as well, and patches get posted, you might find its signal-to-noise
ratio to be not very convenient for a casual user.

For "mere mortals", we have another list, git-users, hosted on Google
Groups [1].  It deals only with problems Git newbies have with Git.

> 2) I am unsure that I did things the "proper" way. I have a git
> maintained subdirectory. I made some changes and saved them in the
> working directory, but did not "git add" or "git commit" them. I then
> decided that I really messed up what I was doing (basically
> reformatting some source code). So to revert the changes back to what
> was last committed, I did a "git reset --hard HEAD". I think this is
> the proper way. But I picked up that command in the section of the
> documentation which was talking about abandoning a "git merge"
> attempt. What I did worked, but is it the proper way? If not, what
> is?

Yes, that was the proper way.  A failed Git merge attempt could be
considered as just another case of a messed-up state of the work tree
and the index.

You might want to read the "Reset Demystified" [2] document for a
friendly descriptions of how different ways to invoke `git reset`
affect the repository, the index and the work tree.
> 
> 3) More generically, suppose I have a file in my working directory
> that I want to put back the way it was "n" commits ago. The best that
> I can see, so far, is "git show HEAD~n:file >|file", replacing the
> "n" and "file" with appropriate values.

`git checkout` is able to fetch specific versions of the specified
files if called like this:

$ git checkout HEAD~n -- filename 

1. http://groups.google.com/group/git-users/
2. http://git-scm.com/2011/07/11/reset.html

Re: three questions: proper forum? & reverting changes to the working directory

[Andy Hawkins]

Hi,

In article <A6B9336CDB62BB46B9F8708E686A7EA0115BAA1404@NRHMMS8P02.uicnrh.dom>,
           McKown, John<John.McKown@healthmarkets.com> wrote:

> 1) is this the proper forum for asking general git usage questions, such
> as "how to"?  If not, what is?

I'd say that here is fine. #git on freenode is also a good source of advice.

> 2) I am unsure that I did things the "proper" way. I have a git maintained
> subdirectory.  I made some changes and saved them in the working
> directory, but did not "git add" or "git commit" them.  I then decided
> that I really messed up what I was doing (basically reformatting some
> source code).  So to revert the changes back to what was last committed, I
> did a "git reset --hard HEAD".  I think this is the proper way.  But I
> picked up that command in the section of the documentation which was
> talking about abandoning a "git merge" attempt.  What I did worked, but is
> it the proper way?  If not, what is?

The easiest answer to this is run 'git status'. It'll list the files in
various states, and tell you how to undo the changes.

Andy