git/Documentation/git-checkout-index.txt

git-checkout-index(1)
=====================

NAME
----
git-checkout-index - Copy files from the index to the working directory


SYNOPSIS
--------
'git-checkout-index' [-u] [-q] [-a] [-f] [-n] [--prefix=<string>]
	[--stage=<number>] [--] <file>...

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

OPTIONS
-------
-u|--index::
	update stat information for the checked out entries in
	the index file.

-q|--quiet::
	be quiet if files exist or are not in the index

-f|--force::
	forces overwrite of existing files

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

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

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

--stage=<number>::
	Instead of checking out unmerged entries, copy out the
	files from named stage.  <number> must be between 1 and 3.

--::
	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:

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

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.

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.


EXAMPLES
--------
To update and refresh only the files already checked out::
+
----------------
$ git-checkout-index -n -f -a && git-update-index --ignore-missing --refresh
----------------

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:
+
----------------
$ git-checkout-index --prefix=git-export-dir/ -a
----------------
+
`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.

Export files with a prefix::
+
----------------
$ git-checkout-index --prefix=.merged- Makefile
----------------
+
This will check out the currently cached copy of `Makefile`
into the file `.merged-Makefile`.


Author
------
Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>


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


GIT
---
Part of the gitlink:git[7] suite