Re: VC mode and git

[Harald Hanche-Olsen <hanche@math.ntnu.no>]

Richard Stallman wrote:
>
> As a separate matter, something is wrong in my repository with
> lisp/ChangeLog.  I have changes I want to check in, and I don't know
> what to do.  Brief hints are not enough to enable me to fix this.
> How should I get my changes installed?
>
> Would you please help me?

Why did you not take my advice on that other thread to post the output 
of “git status -s” to the list? I bet there are many people able to 
help, but giving step by step advice based on too little information is 
dangerous and could lead you into further trouble.

Here is a sample output from “git status -s”, after I made some 
frivolous changes:

; git s
## master...origin/master
MM ChangeLog
M  README
  M lisp/mail/rmail.el

Here, README is changed and staged for commit (it's in the index), 
lisp/mail/rmail.el is changed but not staged for commit, and Changelog 
is changed and staged for commit, then changed again and the new change 
is not staged for commit. (Staging for commit is typically done by “git 
add”.)

It is also useful to know if you have any local commits. Assuming you 
are on the master branch, you can run

   git log origin/master..master

If it produces no output, then you have no local commits that are not in 
the remote branch. If you do, more work is required to recover.

It is POSSIBLE that a safe way to recover from your problems is as follows:

   git stash
   git reset --hard HEAD
   git pull --ff-only
   git stash apply

but I don't want to be the guy who goes down in history as the one who 
caused you to lose your changes because you followed this advice.

Maybe, if someone with more git experience reads this and says it is 
good, you should go ahead. Of course, if any of the commands but the 
last fails, stop and ask for advice again. If the last one reports merge 
conflicts, fix them by hand and run “git add” on each file after you 
fixed it. DO NOT use C-x v v after fixing a merge conflict, since that 
runs both git add and git commit, and you are not ready for the latter 
until all merge conflicts are dealt with.

In any case, do run git status before finally doing git commit. If all 
succeeds, you can clean up with

   git stash drop

– Harald