forces overwrite of existing files
-a::
- checks out all files in the cache (will then continue to
- process listed files).
+ checks out all files in the cache. Cannot be used
+ together with explicit filenames.
-n::
Don't checkout new files, only refresh files already checked
--::
Do not interpret any more arguments as options.
-Note that the order of the flags matters:
+The order of the flags used to matter, but not anymore.
- git-checkout-index -a -f file.c
-
-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).
-
-Also, just doing "git-checkout-index" does nothing. You probably meant
+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".
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
directory.
-
+
NOTE The final "/" is important. The exported name is literally just
prefixed with the specified string, so you can also do something like