How to get a copy of an older version of a file in a git repository?

Question

I have a version of a .tex file from a number of commits ago that I would like to get a copy of. I have the sha1 hash value for the commit that has the version

Answer 1

Use git show with absolute repository paths:

workdir$ git show revision:repo/module/package/code.file > code.file.old

or paths relative to the current directory:

package$ git show revision:./code.file > workdir/code.file.old

In contrast to checking out a file, show does not intrinsically change your workspace, you can do anything you like with the output.

Credit to this answer, and of course see full details in the manual.