The git-checkout command can be used to update specific files or directories in your working tree with those from another branch, without merging in the whole branch. This can be useful when working with several feature branches or using GitHub Pages to generate a static project site.

The git-checkout manual page describes how the git checkout command is not just useful for switching between branches.

When <paths> or --patch are given, git checkout does not switch branches. It updates the named paths in the working tree from the index file or from a named <tree-ish> (most often a commit)…The <tree-ish> argument can be used to specify a specific tree-ish (i.e. commit, tag or tree) to update the index for the given paths before updating the working tree.

In git, a tree-ish is a way of referring to a particular commit or tree. This can be a partial sha or the branch, remote, and tag name pointers.

The syntax for using git checkout to update the working tree with files from a tree-ish is as follows:

git checkout [-p|--patch] [<tree-ish>] [--] <pathspec>…

Therefore, to update the working tree with files or directories from another branch, you can use the branch name pointer in the git checkout command.

git checkout <branch_name> -- <paths>

As an example, this is how you could update your gh-pages branch on GitHub (used to generate a static site for your project) to include the latest changes made to a file that is on the master branch.

# On branch master
git checkout gh-pages
git checkout master -- myplugin.js
git commit -m "Update myplugin.js from master"

The need to update my gh-pages branch with specific files from my master branch was how I first found out about the other uses of the checkout command. It’s worth having a read of the rest of the git-checkout manual page and experimenting with the options.

What is the cascade?

The cascade is a mechanism for determining which styles should be applied to a given element, based on the rules that have cascaded down from various sources.

The cascade takes importance, origin, specificity, and source order of style rules into account. It assigns a weight to each rule. When multiple rules apply to a given element, the rule with the greatest weight takes precedence. The result is an unambiguous way to determine the value of a given element/property combination.

Browsers apply the following sorting logic:

• Find all declarations that apply to a given element/property combination, for the target media type.

• Sort declarations according to their importance (normal or important) and origin (author, user, or user agent). From highest to lowest precedence:

  1. user !important declarations
     
  2. author !important declarations
     
  3. author normal declarations
     
  4. user normal declarations
     
  5. user agent declarations

• If declarations have the same importance and source, sort them by selector specificity.

• Finally, if declarations have the same importance, source, and specificity, sort them by the order they are specified in the CSS. The last declaration wins.

What is specificity?

Specificity is a method of conflict resolution within the cascade.

Specificity is calculated in a very particular way, based on the values of 4 distinct categories. For explanatory purposes, the CSS2 spec represents these categories using the letters a, b, c, and d. Each has a value of 0 by default.

• a is equal to 1 if the declaration comes from a style attribute in the HTML (“inline styles”) rather than a CSS rule with a selector.
• b is equal to the number of ID attributes in a selector.
• c is equal to the number of other attributes and pseudo-classes in a selector.
• d is equal to the number of elements and pseudo-elements in a selector.

The specificity is given by concatenating all 4 resulting numbers. More specific selectors take precedence over less specific ones.

For example, the selector #id .class[href] element:hover contains:

• 1 ID (b is 1)
• 1 class, 1 attribute selector, and 1 pseudo-class (c is 3)
• 1 element (d is 1)

Therefore, it has a specificity of 0,1,3,1. Note that a selector containing a single ID (0,1,0,0) will have a higher specificity than one containing any number of other attributes or elements (e.g., 0,0,10,20). This is one of the reasons why many modern CSS architectural patterns avoid using IDs for styling purposes.

What is inheritance?

Inheritance is distinct from the cascade and involves the DOM tree.

Inheritance is the process by which elements inherit the the values of properties from their ancestors in the DOM tree. Some properties, e.g. color, are automatically inherited by the children of the element to which they are applied. Each property defines whether it will be automatically inherited.

The inherit value can be set for any property and will force a given element to inherit its parent element’s property value, even if the property is not normally inherited.

About !important

The above should make it apparent that !important is a separate concept to specificity. It has no effect on the specificity of a rule’s selector.

An !important declaration has a greater precedence than a normal declaration (see the previously mentioned cascade sorting logic), even declarations contained in an element’s style attribute.

[CSS terminology reference]

Translations

• CSS: каскад, специфика и наследование

The Home Ministry had on Thursday allowed chariot construction with a condition that no religious congregation should take place around the Ratha Khala.

All 1,111 passengers underwent thermal screening at the station before departing for Basti in U.P.

The NCMC chaired by Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba met on Friday to review the situation arising out of the gas leak

8,023 doctors, 8,296 staff nurses, 4,105 paramedics and lab technicians have been identified as dedicated COVID-19 service providers

Godfrey, Paul C., author

Wegerich, Christine, author

Russell, Doug

Weinstein, Art, author

Schragenheim, Eli

Soyka, Peter A., 1958- author

Hampel, Brenda

Ferguson, Matt

Goulston, Mark

Read, Nicholas A. C

Peck, Dave D

Bronckart, Véronique, author

Kaynak, Hale, 1956-

Freedman, Rick, author

Egerton, Peter, author

Finney, Martha I

Robbins, Stephen P., 1943- author

Edmonds, Mike, author

Ringer, Judy, 1949- author

Sherwin, David, author

Hamper, Robert J

Blanka, Christine, author

Stull, Edward. author

Franz, Peter

Tate, Jon, author

Runion, Meryl

Hawk, Ryan, author

Bosworth, Michael T

Kirkman, Bradley Lane, author

Pande, Peter S

Munson, Chuck, author

Stuart-Kotze, Robin

Pein, Christian, author

Grinberg, Alex. author

Maciariello, Joseph A., author

This summary reviews a randomized clinical trial that explores the effect of the early introduction of solid foods on infant sleep.

Association of Early Introduction of Solids With Infant Sleep: A Secondary Analysis of a Randomized Clinical Trial

Interview with Mehraneh D. Jafari, MD, and Kasra Ziai, MD, authors of Association of Compensation From the Surgical and Medical Device Industry to Physicians and Self-declared Conflict of Interest