Git ask me to commit ignored files

Question

I am at branch feature/branch1 , git status list me two files that are on the .gitignore file. When I try to checkout to develop branch, git prevent me with this message:

error: Your local changes to the following files would be overwritten by checkout:
    XXXXXXX.xcworkspace/xcuserdata/XXXX.xcuserdatad/UserInterfaceState.xcuserstate
Please, commit your changes or stash them before you can switch branches.
Aborting

Then I try to add these files although they are listed in the .gitignore file, so I got this message:

The following paths are ignored by one of your .gitignore files:
XXXXXXX.xcworkspace
Use -f if you really want to add them.
fatal: no files added

Why git asked me to add these files? is it because they are not ignored in the develop branch. And what best option to deal with such situation? Thanx in advance.

Answer 1

The problem is that you have the files in your local directory, although they are not versioned by git. And git checkout is trying to pull in these files which are versioned. Git is telling you that it's attempting to overwrite the files, but they are not versioned, so you have 2 choices:

1. Remove the files from your local repo and let the checkout set the files.
2. Version your ignored files by adding them to the git repo. ( git add -f <ignored files> )

To see all of the ignored files in your repo directory, run:

git status --ignored

This will list all your Ignored files, from here you can decide if you want to move, remove or version them before running git checkout <branch> .

After you checkout this branch, you might also want to consider that the ignored files coming in from the branch you're trying to checkout really should not be committed to the git repo, you can remove the files from the repo without deleting them:

git rm --cached <files>