View a file in a different Git branch without changing branches
GitVersion ControlBranchGit BranchGit Problem Overview
Is it possible to open a file in a git branch without checking out that branch? How?
Essentially I want to be able to open a file in my github pages branch without switching branches all the time. I don't want to modify it, just want to view it.
Git Solutions
Solution 1 - Git
This should work:
git show branch:file
Where branch can be any ref (branch, tag, HEAD, ...) and file is the full path of the file. To export it you could use
git show branch:file > exported_file
You should also look at VonC's answers to some related questions:
- https://stackoverflow.com/questions/610208/how-to-retrieve-a-single-file-from-specific-revision-in-git/610315#610315
- https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2364147/how-to-get-just-one-file-from-another-branch/2364223#2364223
UPDATE 2015-01-19:
Nowadays you can use relative paths with git show a1b35:./file.txt.
Solution 2 - Git
git show somebranch:path/to/your/file
you can also do multiple files and have them concatenated:
git show branchA~10:fileA branchB^^:fileB
You do not have to provide the full path to the file, relative paths are acceptable e.g.:
git show branchA~10:../src/hello.c
If you want to get the file in the local directory (revert just one file) you can checkout:
git checkout somebranch^^^ -- path/to/file
Solution 3 - Git
A simple, newbie friendly way for looking into a file:
git gui browser <branch> which lets you explore the contents of any file.
It's also there in the File menu of git gui. Most other -more advanced- GUI wrappers (Qgit, Egit, etc..) offer browsing/opening files as well.
Solution 4 - Git
If you're using Emacs, you can type C-x v ~ or M-x vc-revision-other-window to see a different revision of the file you're currently editing (tags, branches and hashes all work).
Solution 5 - Git
Add the following to your ~/.gitconfig file
[alias]
cat = "!git show \"$1:$2\" #"
And then try this
git cat BRANCHNAME FILEPATH
Personally I prefer separate parameters without a colon. Why? This choice mirrors the parameters of the checkout command, which I tend to use rather frequently and I find it thus much easier to remember than the bizarro colon-separated parameter of the show command.