git pull keeping local changes

Question

How can I safely update  pull  a git project  keeping specific files untouched  even if there s upstream changes   myrepo config config php  Is there a way  of  even if this file was being changed on remote  when I git pull  everything else is updated  but this file is unchanged  not even merged    PS  I need to do what I am asking because I m only writing git-based deploy scripts  I cannot change config files to templates   so  I need way to write update scripts that does not lose what was locally changed  I was hoping for something as simple as   git assume-remote-unchanged file1 git assume-remote-unchanged file2   then git pull

User · Answer

To answer the question   if you want to exclude certain files of a checkout  you can use sparse-checkout  In  git info sparse-checkout  define what you want to keep  Here  we want all     but  note the exclamation mark  config php        config php  Tell git you want to take sparse-checkout into account git config core sparseCheckout true  If you already have got this file locally  do what git does on a sparse checkout  tell it it must exclude this file by setting the  quot skip-worktree quot  flag on it  git update-index --skip-worktree config php  Enjoy a repository where your config php file is yours - whatever changes are on the repository      Please note that configuration values SHOULDN T be in source control    It is a potential security breach It causes problems like this one for deployment  This means you MUST exclude them  put them in  gitignore before first commit   and create the appropriate file on each instance where you checkout your app  by copying and adapting a  quot template quot  file   Note that  once a file is taken in charge by git   gitignore won t have any effect  Given that  once the file is under source control  you only have two choices       rebase all your history to remove the file  with git filter-branch   create a commit that removes the file  It is like fighting a loosing battle  but  well  sometimes you have to live with that

User · Answer

Incase their is local uncommitted changes and avoid merge conflict while pulling  git stash save git pull git stash pop  refer - https   happygitwithr com pull-tricky html

User · Answer

We can also try git pull with rebase  git pull --rebase origin dev

User · Answer

Update  this literally answers the question asked  but I think KurzedMetal s answer is really what you want   Assuming that    You re on the branch master The upstream branch is master in origin You have no uncommitted changes        you could do     Do a pull as usual  but don t commit the result  git pull --no-commit    Overwrite config config php with the version that was there before the merge   and also stage that version  git checkout HEAD config config php    Create the commit  git commit -F  git MERGE MSG   You could create an alias for that if you need to do it frequently   Note that if you have uncommitted changes to config config php  this would throw them away

User · Answer

There is a simple solution based on Git stash   Stash everything that you ve changed  pull all the new stuff  apply your stash   git stash git pull git stash pop   On stash pop there may be conflicts   In the case you describe there would in fact be a conflict for config php   But  resolving the conflict is easy because you know that what you put in the stash is what you want   So do this   git checkout --theirs -- config php

User · Answer

If you have a file in your repo that it is supposed to be customized by most pullers  then rename the file to something like config php template and add config php to your  gitignore

[git] git pull keeping local changes

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