How to recover files from command “git clean -df”

Where did you install git to? Different install methods will put it in different places. Double check your install process. On my machine i have it in /usr/bin/

You need to ensure your PATH contains the directory that the git lives in.

You can either run locate git to search for it, you'll probably have to build your locate database if you haven't already.

Of you can just try a few typical places

/usr/bin/git --version

Once you know where it is installed, can modify your PATH file by editing .profile or .bash_profile to add the appropriate value.

git is installed by Xcode. I doubt you'll have any problems if you replace it, but I can't give you a definitive answer to that…

1. What I'd do is rename the old /usr/bin/git to git_old, then rely on your path to select the new one.
2. If that doesn't work, move the new one to /usr/bin. I doubt Xcode is picky about which version of git it's using.
3. If that still doesn't work, move git_old back to /usr/bin/git and use either a direct path, rename, or alias for your new one.

I doubt you'll have to go past #1 above, though. That should be enough.

Edit: I read your original post backwards. The first thing you should do is make sure your path includes the new git directory BEFORE the directory that contains the old git.