0

I just started using git. I ran the commands:

git init

Then I did:

git add app/controllers/*

(To add all the controllers.)

Then I decided to remove those, so I tried :

git rm app/controllers/*

This gave me an error saying there was some unsaved changes or something, so I had to use the -f flag to force the delete. Now knowing exactly what I was doing, I retyped the command: git rm -f app/controllers/*

Now all my controllers I've been working on for the past weeks are deleted and I don't know how to get them back. I unfortunately had no other back up, which I know is incredibly stupid.

I tried looking on Google. It there are a few commands I tried to run, but whatever I type it says that :

bad default revision 'HEAD'.

Any help recovering the past weeks of work would be incredibly appreciated!

Improve this question
4
  • Have you tried git reset command ? Commented Nov 19, 2014 at 3:19
  • yes, nothing happens. Commented Nov 19, 2014 at 3:20
  • yes, thank you. How do i do that? I don't use stackoverflow much. Commented Nov 19, 2014 at 3:25
  • Check this link it may help you stackoverflow.com/questions/11956710/… Commented Nov 19, 2014 at 3:26

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
2

Presuming you haven't done any permanently destructive commands since your original mistake you should be able to recover your files.

What you can't recover however is the names of the files. Git will store the content, but not the path/name.

So use git fsck to find dangling blobs, then cat the results out and redirect the contents to new files.

me@myvm:/scratch $ mkdir rmtest me@myvm:/scratch $ cd rmtest me@myvm:/scratch/rmtest $ mkdir app me@myvm:/scratch/rmtest $ cd app me@myvm:/scratch/rmtest/app $ mkdir controllers me@myvm:/scratch/rmtest/app $ cd controllers me@myvm:/scratch/rmtest/app/controllers $ echo "2 weeks worth of work" > foo me@myvm:/scratch/rmtest/app/controllers $ cd ../../ me@myvm:/scratch/rmtest $ git init Initialized empty Git repository in /scratch/rmtest/.git/ me@myvm:/scratch/rmtest (master)$ git add app/controllers/* me@myvm:/scratch/rmtest (master)$ git rm app/controllers/* error: the following file has changes staged in the index: app/controllers/foo (use --cached to keep the file, or -f to force removal) me@myvm:/scratch/rmtest (master)$ git rm -f app/controllers/* rm 'app/controllers/foo' me@myvm:/scratch/rmtest (master)$ ll total 0 me@myvm:/scratch/rmtest (master)$ git fsck notice: HEAD points to an unborn branch (master) Checking object directories: 100% (256/256), done. notice: No default references dangling blob f9a0e5002ae9f9a854ecf50560c40b3b0a7ec7bc me@myvm:/scratch/rmtest (master)$ git cat-file -p f9a0e5002ae9f9a854ecf50560c40b3b0a7ec7bc 2 weeks worth of work
Improve this answer
Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

3 Comments

I'm straight... but I swear I want to kiss you right now! Thank you so much !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Glad it worked. Next time try git rm --cached. Anytime you type rm -f in any context think long and hard about what you are doing before hitting enter.
+1. I didn't think of fsck but dived straight into the repository.
1

The add command doesn't add files into the repository. It adds file to the staging area/index. I'm not what you were trying to do when you rm'ed them. Git warns you about them not being committed but then you forcefully removed them using the -f flag which removes the files from the index as well. Now your files are gone.

However, you did add them to the index once so the repository does have blobs for them (assuming you've just done this recently). A low level solution is to go into the .git/objects directory and look for loose objects. You'll find things like this.

{GIT_DIR!}% pwd /tmp/bar/.git/objects {GIT_DIR!}% tree . . ├── 85 │   └── bfe46bc8180ef0f145d8abf946879a524df4a8 ├── info └── pack 3 directories, 1 file {GIT_DIR!}%

Now you do something like git show 85bfe46bc8180ef0f145d8abf946879a524df4a8 (notice that the first two characters are the directory name and the rest are the file name. This will display the contents of that blob which will be one of your files. You'll have to read it and figure out which file it was and then redirect the output as appropriate.

I've made this point before. Git is not very user friendly. It's a power tool so a detailed reading of the documentation before you start using it is highly advisable.

Improve this answer

2 Comments

Neat trick! Time for me to go back and read newartisans.com/2008/04/git-from-the-bottom-up
I'm a sort of new to git, so from my understanding, I'm supposed to type: cd .git , then cd objects. After that, once I'm in the directory, what so I type to see what you showed me?

Start asking to get answers

Find the answer to your question by asking.

Ask question

Explore related questions

See similar questions with these tags.