Git overwrite local files with those from repo but keep local (new) files

Question

I want git to sync and overwrite all files that are on the local machine which are also present in the repository. I don't want git to remove any local changes to the same directory though so e.g.:

repo files:

folder_a/ contains: file_a, file_b, file_c

local files:

folder_a/ contains: file_a, file_b, file_c and file_d

Now I want git to replace all files locally with those from repo, but don't touch file_d.

Answer 1

To make your local branch look exactly like the remote,

git fetch origin

Then, in the branch, you want to overwrite,

git reset --hard origin/<branch-name>

You will not lose the untracked files.

UPDATE:

Assuming the files were added to the index. You can recover your deleted files (if the garbage collection has not happened). Just run,

git fsck --cache --unreachable $(git for-each-ref --format="%(objectname)")

This will show the list of all the unreachable objects.

Checking object directories: 100% (256/256), done.
Checking objects: 100% (195/195), done.
unreachable blob e69de29bb2d1d6434b8b29ae775ad8c2e48c5391

Create files back from all the listed blobs,

git show e69de2 > filname

Answer 2

If you just want overwrite local changes of files that are present in repository, but keep new files untouched. You can use git checkout for it.

Here all local changes in files tracked by git will be overwrite with your last commit:

git checkout -- .

You can discard changes in just one file too, passing its name for git checkout:

git checkout -- file_a

Answer 3

First do a

git stash 

then a

git pull --rebase

then do a git stash pop

This will give you merge conflicts,accept the remote files for the cases you want,your new files will be preserved.