man1/git-checkout-index.1

'\" t
.\"     Title: git-checkout-index
.\"    Author: [FIXME: author] [see http://docbook.sf.net/el/author]
.\" Generator: DocBook XSL Stylesheets v1.79.1 <http://docbook.sf.net/>
.\"      Date: 11/18/2018
.\"    Manual: Git Manual
.\"    Source: Git 2.20.0.rc0
.\"  Language: English
.\"
.TH "GIT\-CHECKOUT\-INDEX" "1" "11/18/2018" "Git 2\&.20\&.0\&.rc0" "Git Manual"
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.SH "NAME"
git-checkout-index \- Copy files from the index to the working tree
.SH "SYNOPSIS"
.sp
.nf
\fIgit checkout\-index\fR [\-u] [\-q] [\-a] [\-f] [\-n] [\-\-prefix=<string>]
                   [\-\-stage=<number>|all]
                   [\-\-temp]
                   [\-z] [\-\-stdin]
                   [\-\-] [<file>\&...]
.fi
.sp
.SH "DESCRIPTION"
.sp
Will copy all files listed from the index to the working directory (not overwriting existing files)\&.
.SH "OPTIONS"
.PP
\-u, \-\-index
.RS 4
update stat information for the checked out entries in the index file\&.
.RE
.PP
\-q, \-\-quiet
.RS 4
be quiet if files exist or are not in the index
.RE
.PP
\-f, \-\-force
.RS 4
forces overwrite of existing files
.RE
.PP
\-a, \-\-all
.RS 4
checks out all files in the index\&. Cannot be used together with explicit filenames\&.
.RE
.PP
\-n, \-\-no\-create
.RS 4
Don\(cqt checkout new files, only refresh files already checked out\&.
.RE
.PP
\-\-prefix=<string>
.RS 4
When creating files, prepend <string> (usually a directory including a trailing /)
.RE
.PP
\-\-stage=<number>|all
.RS 4
Instead of checking out unmerged entries, copy out the files from named stage\&. <number> must be between 1 and 3\&. Note: \-\-stage=all automatically implies \-\-temp\&.
.RE
.PP
\-\-temp
.RS 4
Instead of copying the files to the working directory write the content to temporary files\&. The temporary name associations will be written to stdout\&.
.RE
.PP
\-\-stdin
.RS 4
Instead of taking list of paths from the command line, read list of paths from the standard input\&. Paths are separated by LF (i\&.e\&. one path per line) by default\&.
.RE
.PP
\-z
.RS 4
Only meaningful with
\fB\-\-stdin\fR; paths are separated with NUL character instead of LF\&.
.RE
.PP
\-\-
.RS 4
Do not interpret any more arguments as options\&.
.RE
.sp
The order of the flags used to matter, but not anymore\&.
.sp
Just doing \fBgit checkout\-index\fR does nothing\&. You probably meant \fBgit checkout\-index \-a\fR\&. And if you want to force it, you want \fBgit checkout\-index \-f \-a\fR\&.
.sp
Intuitiveness is not the goal here\&. Repeatability is\&. The reason for the "no arguments means no work" behavior is that from scripts you are supposed to be able to do:
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
$ find \&. \-name \(aq*\&.h\(aq \-print0 | xargs \-0 git checkout\-index \-f \-\-
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.sp
.sp
which will force all existing \fB*\&.h\fR files to be replaced with their cached copies\&. If an empty command line implied "all", then this would force\-refresh everything in the index, which was not the point\&. But since \fIgit checkout\-index\fR accepts \-\-stdin it would be faster to use:
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
$ find \&. \-name \(aq*\&.h\(aq \-print0 | git checkout\-index \-f \-z \-\-stdin
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.sp
.sp
The \fB\-\-\fR is just a good idea when you know the rest will be filenames; it will prevent problems with a filename of, for example, \fB\-a\fR\&. Using \fB\-\-\fR is probably a good policy in scripts\&.
.SH "USING \-\-TEMP OR \-\-STAGE=ALL"
.sp
When \fB\-\-temp\fR is used (or implied by \fB\-\-stage=all\fR) \fIgit checkout\-index\fR will create a temporary file for each index entry being checked out\&. The index will not be updated with stat information\&. These options can be useful if the caller needs all stages of all unmerged entries so that the unmerged files can be processed by an external merge tool\&.
.sp
A listing will be written to stdout providing the association of temporary file names to tracked path names\&. The listing format has two variations:
.sp
.RS 4
.ie n \{\
\h'-04' 1.\h'+01'\c
.\}
.el \{\
.sp -1
.IP "  1." 4.2
.\}
tempname TAB path RS
.sp
The first format is what gets used when
\fB\-\-stage\fR
is omitted or is not
\fB\-\-stage=all\fR\&. The field tempname is the temporary file name holding the file content and path is the tracked path name in the index\&. Only the requested entries are output\&.
.RE
.sp
.RS 4
.ie n \{\
\h'-04' 2.\h'+01'\c
.\}
.el \{\
.sp -1
.IP "  2." 4.2
.\}
stage1temp SP stage2temp SP stage3tmp TAB path RS
.sp
The second format is what gets used when
\fB\-\-stage=all\fR\&. The three stage temporary fields (stage1temp, stage2temp, stage3temp) list the name of the temporary file if there is a stage entry in the index or
\fB\&.\fR
if there is no stage entry\&. Paths which only have a stage 0 entry will always be omitted from the output\&.
.RE
.sp
In both formats RS (the record separator) is newline by default but will be the null byte if \-z was passed on the command line\&. The temporary file names are always safe strings; they will never contain directory separators or whitespace characters\&. The path field is always relative to the current directory and the temporary file names are always relative to the top level directory\&.
.sp
If the object being copied out to a temporary file is a symbolic link the content of the link will be written to a normal file\&. It is up to the end\-user or the Porcelain to make use of this information\&.
.SH "EXAMPLES"
.PP
To update and refresh only the files already checked out
.RS 4
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
$ git checkout\-index \-n \-f \-a && git update\-index \-\-ignore\-missing \-\-refresh
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.sp
.RE
.PP
Using \fIgit checkout\-index\fR to "export an entire tree"
.RS 4
The prefix ability basically makes it trivial to use
\fIgit checkout\-index\fR
as an "export as tree" function\&. Just read the desired tree into the index, and do:
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
$ git checkout\-index \-\-prefix=git\-export\-dir/ \-a
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.sp
\fBgit checkout\-index\fR
will "export" the index into the specified directory\&.
.sp
The final "/" is important\&. The exported name is literally just prefixed with the specified string\&. Contrast this with the following example\&.
.RE
.PP
Export files with a prefix
.RS 4
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
$ git checkout\-index \-\-prefix=\&.merged\- Makefile
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.sp
This will check out the currently cached copy of
\fBMakefile\fR
into the file
\fB\&.merged\-Makefile\fR\&.
.RE
.SH "GIT"
.sp
Part of the \fBgit\fR(1) suite