How to convert a local directory into Git, compare differences with remote repository, and then commit?

Question

I've erroneously written changes into a copy of a remote repository that is no longer version controlled by Git. I need to convert this local directory back into a Git repository, compare differences with the remote branch, and then commit only those changes on top as you would normally.

What is the best way of doing this?

Answer 1

The easiest solution I would see is to use git diff by specified the actual files who changed.

Something along the line of:

 git diff non_git_dir/the-files-*.js git-dir/the-files-*.js > patch.diff

If you have both directory on your disk and can relatively easily point the files you know have changed, it would generate a reasonably good diff file.

Then you would just have to apply the diff on you git managed directory:

  git apply patch.diff

And from there you can commit or do what you want.

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If however the changes are to broad or you can't have the files on your disk for any reason. Maybe you can try to:

• Make your old stuff managed by Git again: git init
• Commit everything: git add . git commit -m"ALL THE THINGS"
• Add your remote repo: git remote add new git@github:newrepo.git
• And then try to generate an acceptable diff: git diff master new/master
• Apply the diff is probably the cleanest solution anyway, as a merge would look very suspicious on the history

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Of course there is also the possibility to just copying the files over and check any potential code lost before committing.

But it sounds like cheating

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My two cents...