What to do if git-am fails with “does not exist in index”?

git git-am
a1an picture a1an · Oct 1, 2013 · Viewed 18.2k times · Source

I have a patch that gives out the following output when I try to apply it with git am

Checking patch old/filename...
error: old/filename: does not exist in index

Within the patch old/filename is actually moved to new/filename but it seems the original file is already missing from the source tree.

So what is the error about and how to solve / work-around it? Can it just be ignored (with --reject or so)?

Answer

Jacques picture Jacques · Jan 17, 2015

The patch was not created against the correct source tree.

One way this could happen:

Assume your original branch (the one you want to apply the patch to) has commits:

  1. 1a -> 1b -> 1c -> 1d

This branch is then cloned, and new commits are made:

  1. 1a -> 1b -> 1c -> 1d -> 1e

Commit 1e included old/filename

Now you do the work in the patch, based on the second branch, not the original one:

  1. 1a -> 1b -> 1c -> 1d -> 1e -> 1f

Commit 1f included the rename old/filename -> new/filename

Now, if you create a patch for commit 1f, you won't be able to apply it on top of commit 1d, because commit 1e is missing where old/filename was added to the index/repository.

Related questions

When applying a patch is there any way to resolve conflicts?

I am on windows. For various reasons we have multiple git instances of different svn branches. Many times I want to fix an issue in repository A, generate a patch, and apply it to repository B. This works fine except …

Read More
How to apply a Git patch to a file with a different name and path?

I have two repositories. In one, I make changes to file ./hello.test. I commit the changes and create a patch from that commit with git format-patch -1 HEAD. Now, I have a second repository that contains a file that …

Read More
How do I undo the most recent local commits in Git?

I accidentally committed the wrong files to Git, but didn't push the commit to the server yet. How can I undo those commits from the local repository?

Read More