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+git-checkout-index(1)
+=====================
+
+NAME
+----
+git-checkout-index - Copy files from the index to the working tree
+
+
+SYNOPSIS
+--------
+[verse]
+'git checkout-index' [-u] [-q] [-a] [-f] [-n] [--prefix=<string>]
+ [--stage=<number>|all]
+ [--temp]
+ [-z] [--stdin]
+ [--] [<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>|all::
+ Instead of checking out unmerged entries, copy out the
+ files from named stage. <number> must be between 1 and 3.
+ Note: --stage=all automatically implies --temp.
+
+--temp::
+ Instead of copying the files to the working directory
+ write the content to temporary files. The temporary name
+ associations will be written to stdout.
+
+--stdin::
+ Instead of taking list of paths from the command line,
+ read list of paths from the standard input. Paths are
+ separated by LF (i.e. one path per line) by default.
+
+-z::
+ Only meaningful with `--stdin`; paths are separated with
+ NUL character instead of LF.
+
+\--::
+ 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. But
+since 'git checkout-index' accepts --stdin it would be faster to use:
+
+----------------
+$ find . -name '*.h' -print0 | git checkout-index -f -z --stdin
+----------------
+
+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.
+
+
+Using --temp or --stage=all
+---------------------------
+When `--temp` is used (or implied by `--stage=all`)
+'git checkout-index' will create a temporary file for each index
+entry being checked out. The index will not be updated with stat
+information. These options can be useful if the caller needs all
+stages of all unmerged entries so that the unmerged files can be
+processed by an external merge tool.
+
+A listing will be written to stdout providing the association of
+temporary file names to tracked path names. The listing format
+has two variations:
+
+ . tempname TAB path RS
++
+The first format is what gets used when `--stage` is omitted or
+is not `--stage=all`. The field tempname is the temporary file
+name holding the file content and path is the tracked path name in
+the index. Only the requested entries are output.
+
+ . stage1temp SP stage2temp SP stage3tmp TAB path RS
++
+The second format is what gets used when `--stage=all`. The three
+stage temporary fields (stage1temp, stage2temp, stage3temp) list the
+name of the temporary file if there is a stage entry in the index
+or `.` if there is no stage entry. Paths which only have a stage 0
+entry will always be omitted from the output.
+
+In both formats RS (the record separator) is newline by default
+but will be the null byte if -z was passed on the command line.
+The temporary file names are always safe strings; they will never
+contain directory separators or whitespace characters. The path
+field is always relative to the current directory and the temporary
+file names are always relative to the top level directory.
+
+If the object being copied out to a temporary file is a symbolic
+link the content of the link will be written to a normal file. It is
+up to the end-user or the Porcelain to make use of this information.
+
+
+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`.
+
+GIT
+---
+Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite