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.TH "GIT-CHECKOUT-INDEX" 1 "" "" ""
.SH NAME
git-checkout-index \- Copy files from the index to the working directory
.SH "SYNOPSIS"

.nf
\fIgit\-checkout\-index\fR [\-u] [\-q] [\-a] [\-f] [\-n] [\-\-prefix=<string>]
                   [\-\-stage=<number>|all]
                   [\-\-temp]
                   [\-z] [\-\-stdin]
                   [\-\-] [<file>]*
.fi

.SH "DESCRIPTION"


Will copy all files listed from the index to the working directory (not overwriting existing files)\&.

.SH "OPTIONS"

.TP
\-u|\-\-index
update stat information for the checked out entries in the index file\&.

.TP
\-q|\-\-quiet
be quiet if files exist or are not in the index

.TP
\-f|\-\-force
forces overwrite of existing files

.TP
\-a|\-\-all
checks out all files in the index\&. Cannot be used together with explicit filenames\&.

.TP
\-n|\-\-no\-create
Don't checkout new files, only refresh files already checked out\&.

.TP
\-\-prefix=<string>
When creating files, prepend <string> (usually a directory including a trailing /)

.TP
\-\-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\&.

.TP
\-\-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\&.

.TP
\-\-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\&.

.TP
\-z
Only meaningful with \-\-stdin; paths are separated with NUL character instead of LF\&.

.TP
\-\-
Do not interpret any more arguments as options\&.


The order of the flags used to matter, but not anymore\&.


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" behavior is that from scripts you are supposed to be able to do:

.nf
$ find \&. \-name '*\&.h' \-print0 | xargs \-0 git\-checkout\-index \-f \-\-
.fi


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 index, which was not the point\&. But since git\-checkout\-index accepts \-\-stdin it would be faster to use:

.nf
$ find \&. \-name '*\&.h' \-print0 | git\-checkout\-index \-f \-z \-\-stdin
.fi


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\&.

.SH "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:

.TP 3
1.
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\&.
.TP
2.
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\&.
.LP


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\&.

.SH "EXAMPLES"

.TP
To update and refresh only the files already checked out

.nf
$ git\-checkout\-index \-n \-f \-a && git\-update\-index \-\-ignore\-missing \-\-refresh
.fi

.TP
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:


.nf
$ git\-checkout\-index \-\-prefix=git\-export\-dir/ \-a
.fi
git\-checkout\-index will "export" the index into the specified directory\&.

The final "/" is important\&. The exported name is literally just prefixed with the specified string\&. Contrast this with the following example\&.

.TP
Export files with a prefix

.nf
$ git\-checkout\-index \-\-prefix=\&.merged\- Makefile
.fi
This will check out the currently cached copy of Makefile into the file \&.merged\-Makefile\&.

.SH "AUTHOR"


Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl\&.org>

.SH "DOCUMENTATION"


Documentation by David Greaves, Junio C Hamano and the git\-list <git@vger\&.kernel\&.org>\&.

.SH "GIT"


Part of the \fBgit\fR(7) suite