Git: Recovering deleted file with “git-checkout”

Problem

$ rm my/precious/file/in/git/repository.txt

Oops! I deleted a version-controlled file from my Git repository by accident and need to recover it. Here is my specific example:

$ rm config/rose_edg_required_macros_and_functions.h.cmake

$ git status
# HEAD detached from origin/too1/ROSE-490-cmake-builtin-functions-header-file
# Changes to be committed:
#   (use "git reset HEAD <file>..." to unstage)
#
#       modified:   cmake/modules/roseGenerateBackendCompilerSpecificHeaders.cmake
#       deleted:    config/rose_edg_required_macros_and_functions.h.cmake
#

As you can tell, rose_edg_required_macros_and_functions.h.cmake was deleted.

This git-status is actually showing the results of my repository after doing a soft rollback of the previous commit I made when my code failed our testing:

$ git log -1 --name-status
commit 9e5bd6f7caa72028fa1b4d3f2efe224f4efe1c15
Author: Justin Too <justin@doubleotoo.com>
Date:   Tue Sep 6 18:11:54 2016 -0700

    (ROSE-490) Add CMake support for generation of builtin functions header file

M       cmake/modules/roseGenerateBackendCompilerSpecificHeaders.cmake
D       config/rose_edg_required_macros_and_functions.h.cmake

I thought the deleted file wasn’t needed anymore (at least on my Linux machine), but our testing quickly pointed out to me that the file is still needed for our Windows support - so I did a soft rollback:

$ git reset --soft HEAD~

Solution

The recovery is simple and straightforward using git-checkout:

$ git checkout HEAD <deleted-file>

In my example:

$ git checkout HEAD config/rose_edg_required_macros_and_functions.h.cmake

$ git status
# HEAD detached from origin/too1/ROSE-490-cmake-builtin-functions-header-file
# Changes to be committed:
#   (use "git reset HEAD <file>..." to unstage)
#
#       modified:   cmake/modules/roseGenerateBackendCompilerSpecificHeaders.cmake
#

Environment

Item	Description
Operating System	RedHat Enterprise Linux 7
Git	git version 1.8.3.1