Shouldn't   "git checkout topic path"  make the directory tree rooted at 
path identical to what is on branch topic? It doesn't.

Try this:

mkdir test
cd test
git init
touch a b
git add a b
git commit -m 'base'
git checkout -b topic
git rm a
git commit -m 'removed a'
git checkout master
git checkout topic .

...and the result is...
ls
a   b

instead of
b

Mark

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No, the behaviour is correct.

- first you removed the file on the topic branch; at the same time  
you removed it from your working tree
- then you switched back to the master branch and so the file was  
added back to your working tree
- then you switched back to the topic branch, and seeing as the file  
"a" is not being tracked in the topic branch Git doesn't touch it

In general, Git only meddles with stuff that you've told it to track.  
This is actually a good thing in most cases because it makes some  
workflows involving dirty trees or trees with untracked content  
somewhat more convenient.

Cheers,
Wincent

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I'm not convinced...

"git checkout branch dir" should make dir have the same value it would 
get if I just did "git checkout branch".  The latter command will ignore 
files only if they are untracked in *both* HEAD and branch. I fail to 
see why the path-limited version of git-checkout should give a different 
result on the part it is asked to affect than the non-path limited 
version. This is very inconsistent and I'm having a hard time 
understanding what workflow it will help.

Mark
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[ message continues ]

I don't know the historical reasons for the difference but it's  
explained in the second para of the man page:

    When <paths> are given, this command does not switch branches. It
    updates the named paths in the working tree from the index file  
(i.e.
    it runs git-checkout-index -f -u), or from a named commit.

So when you supply "." as a path it's not actually switching  
branches. So that's why you see the different behaviour; it's  
intentionally different. Like I said, I don't know the reasons why  
but I imagine it's to make it easy to grab specific files from other  
branches without actually switching.

Cheers,
Wincent

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