git-checkout-index(1)
=====================
-v0.1, May 2005
NAME
----
-git-checkout-index - Copy files from the cache to the working directory
+git-checkout-index - Copy files from the index to the working tree
SYNOPSIS
--------
+[verse]
'git-checkout-index' [-u] [-q] [-a] [-f] [-n] [--prefix=<string>]
- [--] <file>...
+ [--stage=<number>|all]
+ [--temp]
+ [-z] [--stdin]
+ [--] [<file>]\*
DESCRIPTION
-----------
-Will copy all files listed from the cache to the working directory
+Will copy all files listed from the index to the working directory
(not overwriting existing files).
OPTIONS
-------
--u::
+-u|--index::
update stat information for the checked out entries in
- the cache file.
+ the index file.
--q::
- be quiet if files exist or are not in the cache
+-q|--quiet::
+ be quiet if files exist or are not in the index
--f::
+-f|--force::
forces overwrite of existing files
--a::
- checks out all files in the cache (will then continue to
- process listed files).
+-a|--all::
+ checks out all files in the index. Cannot be used
+ together with explicit filenames.
--n::
+-n|--no-create::
Don't checkout new files, only refresh files already checked
out.
When creating files, prepend <string> (usually a directory
including a trailing /)
---::
- Do not interpret any more arguments as options.
+--stage=<number>|all::
+ 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.
+
+--temp::
+ Instead of copying the files to the working directory
+ write the content to temporary files. The temporary name
+ associations will be written to stdout.
+
+--stdin::
+ 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.
-Note that the order of the flags matters:
+-z::
+ Only meaningful with `--stdin`; paths are separated with
+ NUL character instead of LF.
- git-checkout-index -a -f file.c
+\--::
+ Do not interpret any more arguments as options.
-will first check out all files listed in the cache (but not overwrite
-any old ones), and then force-checkout `file.c` a second time (ie that
-one *will* overwrite any old contents with the same filename).
+The order of the flags used to matter, but not anymore.
-Also, just doing "git-checkout-index" does nothing. You probably meant
-"git-checkout-index -a". And if you want to force it, you want
-"git-checkout-index -f -a".
+Just doing `git-checkout-index` does nothing. You probably meant
+`git-checkout-index -a`. And if you want to force it, you want
+`git-checkout-index -f -a`.
Intuitiveness is not the goal here. Repeatability is. The reason for
-the "no arguments means no work" thing is that from scripts you are
-supposed to be able to do things like:
+the "no arguments means no work" behavior is that from scripts you are
+supposed to be able to do:
- find . -name '*.h' -print0 | xargs -0 git-checkout-index -f --
+----------------
+$ find . -name '*.h' -print0 | xargs -0 git-checkout-index -f --
+----------------
which will force all existing `*.h` files to be replaced with their
cached copies. If an empty command line implied "all", then this would
-force-refresh everything in the cache, which was not the point.
-
-To update and refresh only the files already checked out:
-
- git-checkout-index -n -f -a && git-update-index --ignore-missing --refresh
-
-Oh, and the "--" is just a good idea when you know the rest will be
-filenames. Just so that you wouldn't have a filename of "-a" causing
-problems (not possible in the above example, but get used to it in
-scripting!).
-
-The prefix ability basically makes it trivial to use
-git-checkout-index as an "export as tree" function. Just read the
-desired tree into the index, and do a
-
- git-checkout-index --prefix=git-export-dir/ -a
-
-and git-checkout-index will "export" the cache into the specified
+force-refresh everything in the index, which was not the point. But
+since git-checkout-index accepts --stdin it would be faster to use:
+
+----------------
+$ find . -name '*.h' -print0 | git-checkout-index -f -z --stdin
+----------------
+
+The `--` is just a good idea when you know the rest will be filenames;
+it will prevent problems with a filename of, for example, `-a`.
+Using `--` is probably a good policy in scripts.
+
+
+Using --temp or --stage=all
+---------------------------
+When `--temp` is used (or implied by `--stage=all`)
+`git-checkout-index` 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.
+
+A listing will be written to stdout providing the association of
+temporary file names to tracked path names. The listing format
+has two variations:
+
+ . tempname TAB path RS
++
+The first format is what gets used when `--stage` is omitted or
+is not `--stage=all`. 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.
+
+ . stage1temp SP stage2temp SP stage3tmp TAB path RS
++
+The second format is what gets used when `--stage=all`. 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 `.` if there is no stage entry. Paths which only have a stage 0
+entry will always be omitted from the output.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+
+EXAMPLES
+--------
+To update and refresh only the files already checked out::
++
+----------------
+$ git-checkout-index -n -f -a && git-update-index --ignore-missing --refresh
+----------------
+
+Using `git-checkout-index` to "export an entire tree"::
+ The prefix ability basically makes it trivial to use
+ `git-checkout-index` as an "export as tree" function.
+ Just read the desired tree into the index, and do:
++
+----------------
+$ git-checkout-index --prefix=git-export-dir/ -a
+----------------
++
+`git-checkout-index` will "export" the index into the specified
directory.
-
-NOTE The final "/" is important. The exported name is literally just
-prefixed with the specified string, so you can also do something like
++
+The final "/" is important. The exported name is literally just
+prefixed with the specified string. Contrast this with the
+following example.
- git-checkout-index --prefix=.merged- Makefile
+Export files with a prefix::
++
+----------------
+$ git-checkout-index --prefix=.merged- Makefile
+----------------
++
+This will check out the currently cached copy of `Makefile`
+into the file `.merged-Makefile`.
-to check out the currently cached copy of `Makefile` into the file
-`.merged-Makefile`
Author
------
Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
+
Documentation
--------------
-Documentation by David Greaves, Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.
+Documentation by David Greaves,
+Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.
+
GIT
---