Using `git clean` in a folder deleted its contents

Question

I was trying to use Git in a folder then I used git glean -df and I found everything gone.

Does that mean I lost my files and is there any way to get them back?

Answer 1

When you ran git clean -df you asked Git to

Remove untracked files from the working tree

including directories . You also told Git to ignore its safety net .

If Git knows about the files (ie if they've ever been add ed or stash ed, even if they were never commit ed ) then they should be recoverable. Try running git fsck --cache --no-reflogs --lost-found --unreachable and then looking in .git/lost-found/ for objects that you deleted.

Otherwise there is no way for Git to retrieve them; you'll have to rely on other tools like an existing backup, filesystem snapshots, file synchronization tools, or filesystem recovery tools.