I encourage everyone to read A Plumber's Guide to Git: https://alexwlchan.net/a-plumbers-guide-to-git/ https://alexwlchan.net/a-plumbers-guide-to-git/ It's not

I encourage everyone to read A Plumber's Guide to Git: https://alexwlchan.net/a-plumbers-guide-to-git/ https://alexwlchan.net/a-plumbers-guide-to-git/ It's not a book, just a series of five short blog posts. Part 1 explains precisely where files live: https://alexwlchan.net/a-plumbers-guide-to-git/1-the-git-object-store/ https://alexwlchan.net/a-plumbers-guide-to-git/1-the-git-obj... $ mkdir animals $ cd animals $ git init $ echo "Big blue basilisks bawl in the basement" > animals.txt $ git hash-object -w animals.txt b13311e04762c322493e8562e6ce145a899ce570 $ find .git/objects -type f .git/objects/b1/3311e04762c322493e8562e6ce145a899ce570 $ rm animals.txt $ git cat-file -p b13311e04762c322493e8562e6ce145a899ce570 > animals.txt Congratulations, you just did a `git restore animals.txt` manually. Parts 2 through 5 are equally illuminating.