Restoring after git clean

If git clean or another operation deletes your overlay files, repoverlay can restore them from their sources. It uses the state backup outside the repository to identify those files. Keep the overlay sources available.

Restoring overlays

repoverlay restore

This command applies all previously applied overlays again. It uses the information in ~/.local/share/repoverlay/applied/.

Preview before restoring

repoverlay restore --dry-run

How backups work

Tip

repoverlay stores state backups outside the git repository. These backups survive git clean, branch switches, and other operations that remove untracked files. repoverlay creates them automatically.

Each time you apply an overlay, repoverlay saves a copy of its state outside the git repository.

The external backup stores:

• The overlay name and source
• The list of files and their link types
• Enough information to re-apply the overlay from the original source

For details about state tracking and external backups, see How it works.

When to use restore

• After you run git clean -fd or git clean -fdx
• After a branch checkout removes the .repoverlay/ directory
• After any operation that deletes untracked files from the repository