Re: Restore a single file in the index back to HEAD

Junio C Hamano [off-list ref] writes:

quoted

I would prefer "git update-index --reset frotz" or "git checkout
--index HEAD frotz". git ls-tree|git update-index is too cryptic for
me and too long for my fingers.

Then perhaps you can use "git checkout HEAD frotz", which is the
simplest?

Sorry, Oops.

One should never respond to a message in an ancient thread
unless one has enough time to revisit previous messages and
refresh one's memory.

The original topic was about updating the index entry without
touching working tree, so "co HEAD path" would not do what was
wanted.

I think at the UI level, the most appropriate place would be
"git reset".  Checkout is a Porcelainish that is primarily about
working tree and it updates the index as a side effect (from the
UI point of view); you can update the working tree without
modifying index or you can update both index and the working
tree, but updating only index and not working tree does not
belong there.

Given a commit that is different from the current HEAD, "reset"
moves the HEAD and depending on hardness of the reset it updates
the index and the working tree.  Currently the command does not
take paths limiters and means "the whole tree", but asking to
update only one would logically fall as a natural extension to
the current command line if we add paths limiters.

As an implementation detail of the new "reset", the ls-tree to
update-index pipe could be used.