First, don't panic. Nothing is lost. It sound like the 'pull' workflow you are using, does not match the work style of the upstream project.
A 'pull' does two things. First it fetches the appropriate updates (which git version/OS are you using?) from the upstream and stores them in the remote refs. (that is all the objects are put in the object store and the remote branch pointers stored in /refs/remotes/<remotename>/<branchname> ). This step is just making sure you have a perfect copy of the upstream work. Second it tries to merge what has been fetched with your local branch (again various configurations determine which remote branch merges with your local branch). This step is a local work flow that assumes you have been doing some local work that you want to merge into the upstream. Obviously, in this case, that isn't true. As I understand it you simply want your local working branches to match those of the upstream. So you want your branch's head ref, to point at the same place as that you have just fetched. (which may be that the upstream did that heinous crime of a forced update of their published branch! leaving you here) The basic advice here is don't pull, just fetch (it better matches your workflow). Then do a 'gitk --all' to view all the different branches and their locations, and then do the update you need. One such update is "git branch -f localbranch remote/remotebranch" (borrowed from http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4156957/merging-branches-without-checkout/4157435#4157435, and http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5147537/how-do-i-fast-forward-other-tracking-branches-in-git/5148202#5148202) Do use the gitk (or other equivalent) visualiser to see how your branch and the remote branch have diverged. You won't need to download 5Gb! You should already have all the data you need. Philip ----- Original Message ----- From: nmac...@iburst.co.za To: git-users@googlegroups.com Sent: Thursday, January 02, 2014 4:42 AM Subject: [git-users] File in master messed up after adding someone's topic I just use git to keep up with bleeding edge changes to a project. Don't edit/commit or anything. Added someone's topic to get their files for review. Then removed the topic. However, one file in master was changed by adding the topic. (I didn't touch it.) Now I can no longer do a pull because it reports a merge conflict. I can access the latest version of that file (master version), and use copy and paste, but of course git then says I have edited the file and I must either stash or commit. Stashing reverts me to the incorrect version of the file. What can I do? Short of starting from scratch - the repository is about 5GB - 12 hours download. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Git for human beings" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to git-users+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Git for human beings" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to git-users+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.