How to find and restore a deleted file in a Git repository
Asked 07 September, 2021
Viewed 2.4K times
  • 57
Votes

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.

29 Answer