Re: Can I checkout a single file without altering index?

Stefan Naewe <stefan.naewe <at> atlas-elektronik.com> writes:

On 10/12/2010 12:03 PM, Christian Halstrick wrote:

quoted

Can I checkout a certain file to a specific revision without also adding 

this 

quoted

content to the index? I only want to alter the working-tree - no 

modification of 

quoted

index or HEAD needed.

Here is why I need that: I see a bug in git controlled sources. I fix one 

source

quoted

file and also add one unit test in a separate file. I checked that the test
succeeds with my fix. The index now contains what I want to commit.
Now I want to see whether my test fails without my fix. I want to checkout 

HEAD

quoted

for the source file without destroying my index. In the end, after I saw 

that my

quoted

test fails without my fix, I just want to say "git commit" without having 

to.

commit the unit test first, and the fix as a second commit ?

Regards,
  Stefan

Just to add to this, since you might not want the test and the fix in separate 
commmits: (as is implied in the message)
  1. commit unit test.
  2. commit fix.
  3. go to detchatched head at HEAD^
  4. run unit test to insure that it fails.
  5. checkout the branch again to where you have the fix.
  6. run unit test to insure that it doesn't fail.
  7. run `git rebase HEAD^` and merge squash the two commits. (optional)

Alternatively, as others have pointed out, the stash should work as well.