Question

How can I safely update (pull) a git project, keeping specific files untouched, even if there’s upstream changes?

myrepo/config/config.php

Is there a way, of, even if this file was being changed on remote, when I git pull, everything else is updated, but this file is unchanged (not even merged)?

PS. I need to do what I am asking because I’m only writing git-based deploy scripts. I cannot change config files to templates.

so, I need way to write update scripts that does not lose what was locally changed. I was hoping for something as simple as:

git assume-remote-unchanged file1
git assume-remote-unchanged file2

then git pull

Answer 1

There is a simple solution based on Git stash. Stash everything that you’ve changed, pull all the new stuff, apply your stash.

git stash
git pull
git stash pop

On stash pop there may be conflicts. In the case you describe there would in fact be a conflict for config.php. But, resolving the conflict is easy because you know that what you put in the stash is what you want. So do this:

git checkout --theirs -- config.php