"Philip Oakley" <philipoakley@xxxxxxx> writes:
> I'd guess that the misunderstanding is that you maybe thought that the
> whole directory would be reset to it's old state and the files b and c
> deleted, rather than just the named files present in that old commit
> being extracted. If we'd created and added a file d just before the
> checkout, what should have happened to d, and why?
It probably is a bit unfair to call it "misunderstanding". I've had
this entry in the "Leftover Bits" list for quite some time:
git checkout $commit -- somedir may want to remove somedir/file that
is not in $commit but is in the original index. Anybody who wants to
do this needs to consider ramifications and devise transition plans.
Cf. $gmane/234935
In the thread, this message:
https://public-inbox.org/git/xmqqeh8nxltc.fsf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/
may be a good summary.