Copy unsigned folder to another branch

Question

Is there a way to copy an unsigned folder to another branch?

I know that you can copy the monitored folders to another branch by doing something like this:

git checkout mybranch git checkout master -- myfolder 

But is there a way to copy a folder that is not tracked on the main, but tracked on the branch I want to copy to?

I am trying to do this for GitHub pages, and I am following this guide , but he is committed to mastering and pushing it up the GH pages. I do not want to do this. I just want my assembly to create documents and copy the raw documents to another branch, and then push them upstream.

Answer 1

You have a situation where you have incorrect files that conflict with tracked files in another branch. You want to switch to this branch, but checkout will not allow you.

The "first level" solution in git is to push these raw files to the index:

 git add folder 

Now you still cannot check the branch. However, you are given a new opportunity: you can git stash save make changes:

 git stash save 

Now you can switch to the branch and make git stash pop . At this point, you can deal with merge conflicts, if any, and then git reset , and you're done.

[Update: git add not required because git stash has the ability to include files without a trace!]

Let's look at a complete example, including one file called topicfile , which exists only in a branch, and is created as a working file in master , but with different contents:

 ~$ mkdir gittest ~$ cd gittest/ ~/gittest$ git init Initialized empty Git repository in /home/kaz/gittest/.git/ ~/gittest$ touch emptyfile ~/gittest$ git add emptyfile ~/gittest$ git commit -m "starting repo" [master (root-commit) 75ea7cd] starting repo 0 files changed create mode 100644 emptyfile ~/gittest$ git branch * master ~/gittest$ git checkout -b topic Switched to a new branch 'topic' ~/gittest$ cat > topicfile a b c d e ~/gittest$ git add topicfile ~/gittest$ git commit -m "topicfile" [topic 875efc5] topicfile 1 file changed, 5 insertions(+) create mode 100644 topicfile ~/gittest$ git checkout master Switched to branch 'master' ~/gittest$ ls emptyfile ~/gittest$ cat > topicfile @ a b c d e f g h ~/gittest$ git add topicfile ~/gittest$ git stash save topicfile Saved working directory and index state On master: topicfile HEAD is now at 75ea7cd starting repo ~/gittest$ git checkout topic Switched to branch 'topic' ~/gittest$ git stash pop Auto-merging topicfile CONFLICT (add/add): Merge conflict in topicfile ~/gittest$ cat topicfile <<<<<<< Updated upstream ======= @ >>>>>>> Stashed changes a b c d e <<<<<<< Updated upstream ======= f g h >>>>>>> Stashed changes ~/gittest$ cat > topicfile # resolve in favor of stashed changes: @ a b c d e f g h ~/gittest$ git add topicfile ~/gittest$ git reset Unstaged changes after reset: M topicfile ~/gittest$ git diff diff --git a/topicfile b/topicfile index 9405325..bea0ebb 100644 --- a/topicfile +++ b/topicfile @@ -1,5 +1,9 @@ +@ a b c d e +f +g +h 

At this point, we can commit our topicfile changes to topic branches, and the file is still not tracked by master .

Since conflicts arose in git stash pop , a cover still exists. We can clear this with git stash drop .

An alternative to all of this is not only git add unused files for the index, but also git commit to make the correct commit. Then we can cherry pick the fixation in the branch. If we do not want these files to be tracked on master , this is normal: we can later git reset --hard HEAD^ on the main one to fix this commit.

Answer 2

If the folder is not checked, you can simply checkout another branch, and not the checked directory is untouched.