How to find and restore a deleted file in a Git repository

Question

Say I'm in a Git repository. I delete a file and commit that change. I continue working and make some more commits. Then, I find I need to restore that file.

I know I can checkout a file using git checkout HEAD^ foo.bar, but I don't really know when that file was deleted.

1. What would be the quickest way to find the commit that deleted a given filename?
2. What would be the easiest way to get that file back into my working copy?

I'm hoping I don't have to manually browse my logs, checkout the entire project for a given SHA and then manually copy that file into my original project checkout.

Answer 1

Find the last commit that affected the given path. As the file isn't in the HEAD commit, this commit must have deleted it.

git rev-list -n 1 HEAD -- <file_path>

Then checkout the version at the commit before, using the caret (^) symbol:

git checkout <deleting_commit>^ -- <file_path>

Or in one command, if $file is the file in question.

git checkout $(git rev-list -n 1 HEAD -- "$file")^ -- "$file"

---

If you are using zsh and have the EXTENDED_GLOB option enabled, the caret symbol won't work. You can use ~1 instead.

git checkout $(git rev-list -n 1 HEAD -- "$file")~1 -- "$file"

Answer 2

1. Use git log --diff-filter=D --summary to get all the commits which have deleted files and the files deleted;
2. Use git checkout $commit~1 path/to/file.ext to restore the deleted file.

Where $commit is the value of the commit you've found at step 1, e.g. e4cf499627

Answer 3

To restore all those deleted files in a folder, enter the following command.

git ls-files -d | xargs git checkout --

Answer 4

I came to this question looking to restore a file I just deleted but I hadn't yet committed the change. Just in case you find yourself in this situation, all you need to do is the following:

git checkout HEAD -- path/to/file.ext

Answer 5

If you’re insane, use git-bisect. Here's what to do:

git bisect start
git bisect bad
git bisect good <some commit where you know the file existed>

Now it's time to run the automated test. The shell command '[ -e foo.bar ]' will return 0 if foo.bar exists, and 1 otherwise. The "run" command of git-bisect will use binary search to automatically find the first commit where the test fails. It starts halfway through the range given (from good to bad) and cuts it in half based on the result of the specified test.

git bisect run '[ -e foo.bar ]'

Now you're at the commit which deleted it. From here, you can jump back to the future and use git-revert to undo the change,

git bisect reset
git revert <the offending commit>

or you could go back one commit and manually inspect the damage:

git checkout HEAD^
cp foo.bar /tmp
git bisect reset
cp /tmp/foo.bar .

Answer 6

My new favorite alias, based on bonyiii's answer (upvoted), and my own answer about "Pass an argument to a Git alias command":

git config alias.restore '!f() { git checkout $(git rev-list -n 1 HEAD -- $1)~1 -- $(git diff --name-status $(git rev-list -n 1 HEAD -- $1)~1 | grep '^D' | cut -f 2); }; f'

I have lost a file, deleted by mistake a few commits ago?
Quick:

git restore my_deleted_file

Crisis averted.

Warning, with Git 2.23 (Q3 2019) comes the experimental command named git restore(!).
So rename this alias (as shown below).

---

Robert Dailey proposes in the comments the following alias:

restore-file = !git checkout $(git rev-list -n 1 HEAD -- "$1")^ -- "$1"

And jegan adds in the comments:

For setting the alias from the command line, I used this command:

git config --global alias.restore "\!git checkout \$(git rev-list -n 1 HEAD -- \"\$1\")^ -- \"\$1\"" 

Answer 7

If you know the filename, this is an easy way with basic commands:

List all the commits for that file.

git log -- path/to/file

The last commit (topmost) is the one that deleted the file. So you need to restore the second to last commit.

git checkout {second to last commit} -- path/to/file

Answer 8

To restore a deleted and commited file:

git reset HEAD some/path
git checkout -- some/path

It was tested on Git version 1.7.5.4.

Answer 9

I've got this solution.

1. Get the id of the commit where the file was deleted using one of the ways below.

   • git log --grep=*word*
   • git log -Sword
   • git log | grep --context=5 *word*
   • git log --stat | grep --context=5 *word* # recommended if you hardly remember anything

2. You should get something like:

commit bfe68bd117e1091c96d2976c99b3bcc8310bebe7 Author: Alexander Orlov Date: Thu May 12 23:44:27 2011 +0200

replaced deprecated GWT class
- gwtI18nKeySync.sh, an outdated (?, replaced by a Maven goal) I18n generation script

commit 3ea4e3af253ac6fd1691ff6bb89c964f54802302 Author: Alexander Orlov Date: Thu May 12 22:10:22 2011 +0200

3. Now using the commit id bfe68bd117e1091c96d2976c99b3bcc8310bebe7 do:

git checkout bfe68bd117e1091c96d2976c99b3bcc8310bebe7^1 yourDeletedFile.java

As the commit id references the commit where the file was already deleted you need to reference the commit just before bfe68b which you can do by appending ^1. This means: give me the commit just before bfe68b.

Answer 10

If you only made changes and deleted a file, but not commit it, and now you broke up with your changes

git checkout -- .

but your deleted files did not return, you simply do the following command:

git checkout <file_path>

And presto, your file is back.

Answer 11

git checkout /path/to/deleted.file

Answer 12

git undelete path/to/file.ext

1. Put this in your .bash_profile (or other relevant file that loads when you open a command shell):

   git config --global alias.undelete '!sh -c "git checkout $(git rev-list -n 1 HEAD -- $1)^ -- $1" -'
   

2. Then use:

   git undelete path/to/file.ext
   

This alias first checks to find the last commit where this file existed, and then does a Git checkout of that file path from that last commit where this file existed. Source.

Answer 13

Actually, this question is directly about Git, but somebody like me works with GUI tools like the WebStorm VCS other than knowing about Git CLI commands.

I right click on the path that contains the deleted file, and then go to Git and then click on Show History.

The VCS tools show all revisions train and I can see all commits and changes of each of them.

Then I select the commits that my friend delete the PostAd.js file. now see below:

And now, I can see my desire deleted file. I just double-click on the filename and it recovers.

I know my answer is not Git commands, but it is fast, reliable and easy for beginner and professional developers. WebStorm VCS tools are awesome and perfect for working with Git and it doesn't need any other plugin or tools.

Answer 14

In many cases, it can be useful to use coreutils (grep, sed, etc.) in conjunction with Git. I already know these tools quite well, but Git less so. If I wanted to do a search for a deleted file, I would do the following:

git log --raw | grep -B 30 $'D\t.*deleted_file.c'

When I find the revision/commit:

git checkout <rev>^ -- path/to/refound/deleted_file.c

Just like others have stated before me.

The file will now be restored to the state it had before removal. Remember to re-commit it to the working tree if you want to keep it around.

Answer 15

I had to restore a bunch of deleted files from a specific commit, and I managed it with two commands:

git show <rev> --diff-filter=D --summary --name-only --no-commit-id | xargs git checkout <rev>^ -- 
git show <rev> --diff-filter=D --summary --name-only --no-commit-id | xargs git reset HEAD 

(Note the trailing space on the end of each command.)

The files had been added to the .gitignore file and then cleared with git rm. I needed to restore the files, but then unstage them. I had hundreds of files to restore, and typing things manually for each file as in the other examples was going to be far too slow.

Answer 16

I had the same question. Without knowing it, I had created a dangling commit.

List dangling commits

git fsck --lost-found

Inspect each dangling commit

git reset --hard <commit id>

My files reappeared when I moved to the dangling commit.

git status for the reason:

“HEAD detached from <commit id where it detached>”

Answer 17

Find the commit that deleted your file:

git log --diff-filter=D --oneline -- path/to/file | cut -f -d ' '

Sample output:

4711174

As of Git 2.23 there is actually a restore command. It is still experimental but in order to restore something you removed in a commit (4711174 in this case) you can then type:

git restore --source=4711174^ path/to/file

Note the ^ after the commit id as we want to restore something from the commit before the one that deleted the file.

The --source argument tells the restore command where to look for the file(s) to restore and it can be any commit and even the index.

See: git-restore doc for git 2.23.0

Answer 18

user@bsd:~/work/git$ rm slides.tex
user@bsd:~/work/git$ git pull 
Already up-to-date.
user@bsd:~/work/git$ ls slides.tex
ls: slides.tex: No such file or directory

Restore the deleted file:

user@bsd:~/work/git$ git checkout
D       .slides.tex.swp
D       slides.tex
user@bsd:~/work/git$ git checkout slides.tex 
user@bsd:~/work/git$ ls slides.tex
slides.tex

Answer 19

If you know the commit that deleted the file(s), run this command where <SHA1_deletion> is the commit that deleted the file:

git diff --diff-filter=D --name-only <SHA1_deletion>~1 <SHA1_deletion> | xargs git checkout <SHA1_deletion>~1 --

The part before the pipe lists all the files that were deleted in the commit; they are all checkout from the previous commit to restore them.

Answer 20

In our case we accidentally deleted files in a commit and some commits later we realized our mistake and wanted to get back all the files that were deleted, but not those that were modified.

Based on Charles Bailey's excellent answer, here is my one-liner:

git co $(git rev-list -n 1 HEAD -- <file_path>)~1 -- $(git diff --name-status $(git rev-list -n 1 HEAD -- <file_path>)~1 head | grep '^D' | cut -f 2)

Answer 21

Simple and precise-

First of all, get a latest stable commit in which you have that file by -

git log 

Say you find $commitid 1234567..., then

git checkout <$commitid> $fileName

This will restore the file version which was in that commit.

Answer 22

For the best way to do that, try it.

---

First, find the commit id of the commit that deleted your file. It will give you a summary of commits which deleted files.

git log --diff-filter=D --summary

git checkout 84sdhfddbdddf~1

Note: 84sdhfddbddd is your commit id

Through this you can easily recover all deleted files.

Answer 23

You could always git revert your commit which deleted the file. (This assumes that the deletion was the only change in the commit.)

> git log
commit 2994bda49cd97ce49099953fc3f76f7d3c35d1d3
Author: Dave <[email protected]>
Date:   Thu May 9 11:11:06 2019 -0700

    deleted readme.md

And if you've continued work, and realized later that you didn't want to commit that deletion commit, you could revert it using:

> git revert 2994bd

Now git log shows:

> git log
Author: Dave <[email protected]>
Date:   Thu May 9 11:17:41 2019 -0700

    Revert "deleted readme"

    This reverts commit 2994bda49cd97ce49099953fc3f76f7d3c35d1d3.

And readme.md has been restored into the repository.

Answer 24

If the deletion has not been committed, the command below will restore the deleted file in the working tree.

$ git checkout -- <file>

You can get a list of all the deleted files in the working tree using the command below.

$ git ls-files --deleted

If the deletion has been committed, find the commit where it happened, then recover the file from this commit.

$ git rev-list -n 1 HEAD -- <file>
$ git checkout <commit>^ -- <file>

In case you are looking for the path of the file to recover, the following command will display a summary of all deleted files.

$ git log --diff-filter=D --summary

Answer 25

I also have this problem using the below code to retrieve a previous file to a local directory:

git checkout <file path with name>

The below example is working for me:

git checkout resources/views/usaSchools.blade.php

Answer 26

Plus point: The below methods does work good for the scenario that files/folders got deleted even from your Trash or Recycle bin.

Files/Folders are deleted from working tree but not committed yet:

I. If you have not yet indexed (git add) your changes you can revert content of a directory:

git restore -- path/to/folder_OR_file

II. If the deletion is already indexed, you should reset that first:

git reset -- path/to/folder_OR_file

then perform, git restore path/to/folder_OR_file

Files/Folders are deleted in some commit in the past:

1. Use git log --diff-filter=D --summary to get details of the commits in which files/folder were deleted;
2. Use git checkout $commit~1 path/to/folder_OR_file to restore the deleted files/folder. Where $commit is the sha-value of the commit you've found at step 1, e.g. c7578994

Answer 27

You can checkout deleted files:

git checkout

Output

D       index.html

To restore it:

git restore index.html

If you deleted multi files and you need to restore all use:

git restore .

See Gif image

Answer 28

$ git log --diff-filter=D --summary  | grep "delete" | sort

Answer 29

In order to restore all deleted file with Git, you can also do:

git checkout $(git ls-files --deleted)

Where git ls-files --deleted lists all deleted files and git checkout $(git command) restores the list of files in a parameter.