Question

I’m trying to switch local branches in GIT but some auto-generated, ignored and uncommitted files are preventing it. Is there a way to have these files not prevent me from switching branches?

I have a common workflow. I have a development branch which has some .class files that I generate locally from source. The .class files are not in the repo and they are ignored. When I update my local development branch I generate all the class files. Everything is good.

When I try to switch branches I get warned about all my uncommitted changes in these class files. I can get around this by switching branches from the command-line with the force switch but this seems silly. Is there any way to let GIT know it really shouldn’t be concerned with these files / folders?

My team is using Eclipse and EGit. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
David R

Answer 1

Your other branch probably has those committed and these will clash with what you have in your working dir. You can do one of 2 things:

git clean -xdf # to get rid of the untracked files and then you can switch

or

git clone this-repo # to another place
git checkout -t origin/other-branch 
# clean up the files that should be ignored
git add -A && git commit -m "fixed ignored files" && git push -f
# go back to the original repo
git checkout other-branch # should work now