Missing files when retaining files in root while also renaming subdirectory to root

[samuller]

When trying to rename a subdirectory to root (--path-rename subdirectory/:) while also trying to keep some files in root (--path some-file), it looks like there are some cases where the root file will not be kept (and also no error will be thrown).

I'm able to replicate the issue by setting up a repo as follows:

git clone https://github.com/newren/git-filter-repo.git test-repo
cd test-repo
echo "example" > release/Makefile
git add release/Makefile
git commit -m "Add release/Makefile"
git rm release/Makefile
git commit -m "Delete release/Makefile"

Then running the git-filter-repo command to keep two files in root while also renaming a subdirectory:

git-filter-repo --force --path README.md --path Makefile --path release --path-rename release/:

The resulting repo is then missing the Makefile that I wanted to keep.

Is git-filter-repo able to support this case where the subdirectory historically had a conflicting filename? Can I somehow do the subdirectory rename while excluding that one historical file in the subdirectory (release/Makefile in this case)?

(I suspect this issue might also be related to a question asked here: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/67786357/use-git-filter-repo-to-move-a-subdirectory-to-root-while-retaining-files-in-root - although none of their command variations worked for me.)

[newren]

Once you have colliding filenames within a single filtering invocation, all bets are off. And there's not a lot I can do to fix that.

However, you could do this in multiple filtering invocations:

   git filter-repo --path release/Makefile --invert-paths
   git filter-repo --path README.md --path Makefile --path release --path-rename release/:

Does that help? (Would it have helped had I answered about a year sooner?)