How to Get Just One File from Another Branch

To get a single file from another branch in Git, you can use the git checkout command. Here’s how to do it step by step:

1. Identify the file and the branch:
   • Determine the file you want to retrieve and the branch where it is located.

2. Switch to your working branch:

   • Make sure you are on the branch where you want to bring the file. For example, if you are on the main branch, you can confirm this by running:

      

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     git checkout main
     

3. Checkout the file from the other branch:

   • Use the git checkout command to get the specific file from the other branch. The syntax is: Replace <branch> with the name of the branch containing the file and <file> with the path to the file. For example, to get example.txt from the feature-branch, you would run:

      

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     git checkout <branch> -- <file>
     

      

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     git checkout feature-branch -- path/to/example.txt
     

4. Add and commit the file (optional):

   • After checking out the file, you might want to add and commit it to your current branch:

      

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     git add path/to/example.txt
     git commit -m "Add example.txt from feature-branch"
     

Example

Let's say you are on the main branch and you want to retrieve docs/readme.txt from the develop branch. You would do the following:

1. Ensure you are on the main branch:

    

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   git checkout main
   

2. Checkout the readme.txt file from the develop branch:

    

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   git checkout develop -- docs/readme.txt
   

3. (Optional) Add and commit the file:

    

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   git add docs/readme.txt
   git commit -m "Add readme.txt from develop branch"
   

By following these steps, you can successfully get a single file from another branch without affecting the rest of your working directory.

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