Undo git update-index --assume-unchanged <file>

Question

I have run the following command to ignore watching/tracking a particular directory/file:

git update-index --assume-unchanged <file>

How can I undo this, so that <file> is watched/tracked again?

Answer 1

Adding to @adardesign's answer, if you want to reset all files that have been added to assume-unchanged list to no-assume-unchanged in one go, you can do the following:

git ls-files -v | grep '^h' | sed 's/^..//' | sed 's/\ /\\ /g' | xargs -I FILE git update-index --no-assume-unchanged FILE || true

This will just strip out the two characters output from grep i.e. "h ", then escape any spaces that may be present in file names, and finally || true will prevent the command to terminate prematurely in case some files in the loop has errors.

Answer 2

If you want to undo all files that was applied assume unchanged with any status, not only cached (git marks them by character in lower case), you can use the following command:

git ls-files -v | grep '^[a-z]' | cut -c 3- | tr '\012' '\000' | xargs -0 git update-index --no-assume-unchanged

1. git ls-files -v will print all files with their status
2. grep '^[a-z]' will filter files and select only assume unchanged
3. cut -c 3- will remove status and leave only paths, cutting from the 3-rd character to the end
4. tr '\012' '\000' will replace end of line character (\012) to zero character (\000)
5. xargs -0 git update-index --no-assume-unchanged will pass all paths separated by zero character to git update-index --no-assume-unchanged to undo

Answer 3

To synthesize the excellent original answers from @adardesign, @adswebwork and @AnkitVishwakarma, and comments from @Bdoserror, @Retsam, @seanf, and @torek, with additional documentation links and concise aliases...

Basic Commands

To reset a file that is assume-unchanged back to normal:

git update-index --no-assume-unchanged <file>

To list all files that are assume-unchanged:

git ls-files -v | grep '^[a-z]' | cut -c3-

To reset all assume-unchanged files back to normal:

git ls-files -v | grep '^[a-z]' | cut -c3- | xargs git update-index --no-assume-unchanged --

Note: This command which has been listed elsewhere does not appear to reset all assume-unchanged files any longer (I believe it used to and previously listed it as a solution):

git update-index --really-refresh

Shortcuts

To make these common tasks easy to execute in git, add/update the following alias section to .gitconfig for your user (e.g. ~/.gitconfig on a *nix or macOS system):

[alias]
    hide = update-index --assume-unchanged
    unhide = update-index --no-assume-unchanged
    unhide-all = ! git ls-files -v | grep '^[a-z]' | cut -c3- | xargs git unhide --
    hidden = ! git ls-files -v | grep '^[a-z]' | cut -c3-

Answer 4

If this is a command that you use often - you may want to consider having an alias for it as well. Add to your global .gitconfig:

[alias]
    hide = update-index --assume-unchanged
    unhide = update-index --no-assume-unchanged

How to set an alias (if you don't know already):

git config --configLocation alias.aliasName 'command --options'

Example:

git config --global alias.hide 'update-index --assume-unchanged'
git config... etc

After saving this to your .gitconfig, you can run a cleaner command.

git hide myfile.ext

or

git unhide myfile.ext

This git documentation was very helpful.

As per the comments, this is also a helpful alias to find out what files are currently being hidden:

[alias]
    hidden = ! git ls-files -v | grep '^h' | cut -c3-

Answer 5

To get undo/show dir's/files that are set to assume-unchanged run this:

git update-index --no-assume-unchanged <file>

To get a list of dir's/files that are assume-unchanged run this in a unix shell:

git ls-files -v | grep '^h'

or in a PowerShell:

git ls-files -v | Select-String -CaseSensitive '^h'

Answer 6

So this happened! I accidently clicked on "assume unchanged"! I tried searching on Internet, but could not find any working solution! So, I tried few things here and there and finally I found the solution (easiest one) for this which will undo the assume unchanged!

Right click on "Your Project" then Team > Advanced > No assume Unchanged.

Answer 7

None of the solutions worked for me in Windows - it seems to use capital H rather than h for the file status and the grep command requires an extra caret as ^ also represents the start of line as well as negating the next character.

Windows solution

1. Open Git Bash and change to the relevant top level directory.
2. git ls-files -v | grep '^^H' to list all the uncached files
3. git ls-files -v | grep '^^H' | cut -c 3- | tr '\012' '\000' | xargs -0 git update-index --no-skip-worktree to undo the files skipping of all files that was done via update-index --skip-worktree
4. git ls-files -v | grep '^^H]' | cut -c 3- | tr '\012' '\000' | xargs -0 git update-index --no-assume-unchanged to undo the files skipping of all files that was done via update-index --assume-unchanged
5. git ls-files -v | grep '^^H' to again list all the uncached files and check whether the above commands have worked - this should now not return anything

Answer 8

Nothing here that is not covered. But would like to add my 2 cents. At times, I run a build and it changes lot of files and then I want to work on something, so this command really helps me a lot.

git update-index --assume-unchanged `git status | grep modified | sed 's|modified:||g'| xargs`

Hope someone else find it useful as well.

Answer 9

If you are using Git Extensions, then follow below steps:

1. Go to commit window.
2. Click on the dropdown named Working directory changes.
3. Select Show assummed-unchanged files option.
4. Right click on the file you want to unassumme.
5. Select Do no assumme unchanged.

You are done.

Answer 10

git update-index function has several option you can find typing as below:

git update-index --help

Here you will find various option - how to handle with the function update-index.

[if you don't know the file name]

git update-index --really-refresh 

[if you know the file name ]

git update-index --no-assume-unchanged <file>

will revert all the files those have been added in ignore list through.

git update-index --assume-unchanged <file>

Answer 11

I assume (heh) you meant --assume-unchanged, since I don't see any --assume-changed option. The inverse of --assume-unchanged is --no-assume-unchanged.