How to find and restore a deleted file in a Git repository

Question

Say I\'m in a Git repository. I delete a file and commit that change. I continue working and make some more commits. Then, I find I need to restore that file.

I know

Answer 1

My new favorite alias, based on bonyiii's answer (upvoted), and my own answer about "Pass an argument to a Git alias command":

git config alias.restore '!f() { git checkout $(git rev-list -n 1 HEAD -- $1)~1 -- $(git diff --name-status $(git rev-list -n 1 HEAD -- $1)~1 | grep '^D' | cut -f 2); }; f'

I have lost a file, deleted by mistake a few commits ago?
Quick:

git restore my_deleted_file

Crisis averted.

Warning, with Git 2.23 (Q3 2019) comes the experimental command named git restore(!).
So rename this alias (as shown below).

---

Robert Dailey proposes in the comments the following alias:

restore-file = !git checkout $(git rev-list -n 1 HEAD -- "$1")^ -- "$1"

And jegan adds in the comments:

For setting the alias from the command line, I used this command:

git config --global alias.restore "\!git checkout \$(git rev-list -n 1 HEAD -- \"\$1\")^ -- \"\$1\""