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gitgit-rmgit-fsck

Recover staged but not committed files after 'git rm -rf'


On my local machine I removed files from folder.

git init
git add --all

then I wrote (don't ask me, why! :) )

git rm -rf

I don't commit, yet. Now I have empty folders in my project. In .git folder has objects with 53 Mb of files.

How can I recover my files? I've tried programs like Drill Disc and Stellar, but not found my files. And I can't rollback from GIT.

How can I recover the lost files?


Solution

  • (update) Use git fsck instead, it is a builtin command for retrieving files you have once added to git repository.

    git fsck --lost-found --unreachable
    

    after the command processing, retrieved files will be placed at .git/lost-found/other, with file name of a sha256 hash. Although the original name is still lost, the content will be back.


    You can find your files in your .git/objects directory.

    Suppose there is a .git/objects/2f/ae996f8f8f9298b41ba4fdbac3d62014f9579e object, you can execute

    git cat-file -p 2fae996
    

    to get the content of your lost file.

    But I'm sorry, I have no idea about reconstructing your directory or doing this automatically.