1git-update-index(1) 2=================== 3 4NAME 5---- 6git-update-index - Register file contents in the working tree to the index 7 8 9SYNOPSIS 10-------- 11[verse] 12'git update-index' 13 [--add] [--remove | --force-remove] [--replace] 14 [--refresh] [-q] [--unmerged] [--ignore-missing] 15 [(--cacheinfo <mode> <object> <file>)...] 16 [--chmod=(+|-)x] 17 [--assume-unchanged | --no-assume-unchanged] 18 [--skip-worktree | --no-skip-worktree] 19 [--ignore-submodules] 20 [--really-refresh] [--unresolve] [--again | -g] 21 [--info-only] [--index-info] 22 [-z] [--stdin] 23 [--verbose] 24 [--] [<file>...] 25 26DESCRIPTION 27----------- 28Modifies the index or directory cache. Each file mentioned is updated 29into the index and any 'unmerged' or 'needs updating' state is 30cleared. 31 32See also linkgit:git-add[1] for a more user-friendly way to do some of 33the most common operations on the index. 34 35The way 'git update-index' handles files it is told about can be modified 36using the various options: 37 38OPTIONS 39------- 40--add:: 41 If a specified file isn't in the index already then it's 42 added. 43 Default behaviour is to ignore new files. 44 45--remove:: 46 If a specified file is in the index but is missing then it's 47 removed. 48 Default behavior is to ignore removed file. 49 50--refresh:: 51 Looks at the current index and checks to see if merges or 52 updates are needed by checking stat() information. 53 54-q:: 55 Quiet. If --refresh finds that the index needs an update, the 56 default behavior is to error out. This option makes 57 'git update-index' continue anyway. 58 59--ignore-submodules:: 60 Do not try to update submodules. This option is only respected 61 when passed before --refresh. 62 63--unmerged:: 64 If --refresh finds unmerged changes in the index, the default 65 behavior is to error out. This option makes 'git update-index' 66 continue anyway. 67 68--ignore-missing:: 69 Ignores missing files during a --refresh 70 71--cacheinfo <mode> <object> <path>:: 72 Directly insert the specified info into the index. 73 74--index-info:: 75 Read index information from stdin. 76 77--chmod=(+|-)x:: 78 Set the execute permissions on the updated files. 79 80--assume-unchanged:: 81--no-assume-unchanged:: 82 When these flags are specified, the object names recorded 83 for the paths are not updated. Instead, these options 84 set and unset the "assume unchanged" bit for the 85 paths. When the "assume unchanged" bit is on, git stops 86 checking the working tree files for possible 87 modifications, so you need to manually unset the bit to 88 tell git when you change the working tree file. This is 89 sometimes helpful when working with a big project on a 90 filesystem that has very slow lstat(2) system call 91 (e.g. cifs). 92+ 93This option can be also used as a coarse file-level mechanism 94to ignore uncommitted changes in tracked files (akin to what 95`.gitignore` does for untracked files). 96Git will fail (gracefully) in case it needs to modify this file 97in the index e.g. when merging in a commit; 98thus, in case the assumed-untracked file is changed upstream, 99you will need to handle the situation manually. 100 101--really-refresh:: 102 Like '--refresh', but checks stat information unconditionally, 103 without regard to the "assume unchanged" setting. 104 105--skip-worktree:: 106--no-skip-worktree:: 107 When one of these flags is specified, the object name recorded 108 for the paths are not updated. Instead, these options 109 set and unset the "skip-worktree" bit for the paths. See 110 section "Skip-worktree bit" below for more information. 111 112-g:: 113--again:: 114 Runs 'git update-index' itself on the paths whose index 115 entries are different from those from the `HEAD` commit. 116 117--unresolve:: 118 Restores the 'unmerged' or 'needs updating' state of a 119 file during a merge if it was cleared by accident. 120 121--info-only:: 122 Do not create objects in the object database for all 123 <file> arguments that follow this flag; just insert 124 their object IDs into the index. 125 126--force-remove:: 127 Remove the file from the index even when the working directory 128 still has such a file. (Implies --remove.) 129 130--replace:: 131 By default, when a file `path` exists in the index, 132 'git update-index' refuses an attempt to add `path/file`. 133 Similarly if a file `path/file` exists, a file `path` 134 cannot be added. With --replace flag, existing entries 135 that conflict with the entry being added are 136 automatically removed with warning messages. 137 138--stdin:: 139 Instead of taking list of paths from the command line, 140 read list of paths from the standard input. Paths are 141 separated by LF (i.e. one path per line) by default. 142 143--verbose:: 144 Report what is being added and removed from index. 145 146-z:: 147 Only meaningful with `--stdin` or `--index-info`; paths are 148 separated with NUL character instead of LF. 149 150\--:: 151 Do not interpret any more arguments as options. 152 153<file>:: 154 Files to act on. 155 Note that files beginning with '.' are discarded. This includes 156 `./file` and `dir/./file`. If you don't want this, then use 157 cleaner names. 158 The same applies to directories ending '/' and paths with '//' 159 160Using --refresh 161--------------- 162'--refresh' does not calculate a new sha1 file or bring the index 163up-to-date for mode/content changes. But what it *does* do is to 164"re-match" the stat information of a file with the index, so that you 165can refresh the index for a file that hasn't been changed but where 166the stat entry is out of date. 167 168For example, you'd want to do this after doing a 'git read-tree', to link 169up the stat index details with the proper files. 170 171Using --cacheinfo or --info-only 172-------------------------------- 173'--cacheinfo' is used to register a file that is not in the 174current working directory. This is useful for minimum-checkout 175merging. 176 177To pretend you have a file with mode and sha1 at path, say: 178 179---------------- 180$ git update-index --cacheinfo mode sha1 path 181---------------- 182 183'--info-only' is used to register files without placing them in the object 184database. This is useful for status-only repositories. 185 186Both '--cacheinfo' and '--info-only' behave similarly: the index is updated 187but the object database isn't. '--cacheinfo' is useful when the object is 188in the database but the file isn't available locally. '--info-only' is 189useful when the file is available, but you do not wish to update the 190object database. 191 192 193Using --index-info 194------------------ 195 196`--index-info` is a more powerful mechanism that lets you feed 197multiple entry definitions from the standard input, and designed 198specifically for scripts. It can take inputs of three formats: 199 200 . mode SP sha1 TAB path 201+ 202The first format is what "git-apply --index-info" 203reports, and used to reconstruct a partial tree 204that is used for phony merge base tree when falling 205back on 3-way merge. 206 207 . mode SP type SP sha1 TAB path 208+ 209The second format is to stuff 'git ls-tree' output 210into the index file. 211 212 . mode SP sha1 SP stage TAB path 213+ 214This format is to put higher order stages into the 215index file and matches 'git ls-files --stage' output. 216 217To place a higher stage entry to the index, the path should 218first be removed by feeding a mode=0 entry for the path, and 219then feeding necessary input lines in the third format. 220 221For example, starting with this index: 222 223------------ 224$ git ls-files -s 225100644 8a1218a1024a212bb3db30becd860315f9f3ac52 0 frotz 226------------ 227 228you can feed the following input to `--index-info`: 229 230------------ 231$ git update-index --index-info 2320 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000 frotz 233100644 8a1218a1024a212bb3db30becd860315f9f3ac52 1 frotz 234100755 8a1218a1024a212bb3db30becd860315f9f3ac52 2 frotz 235------------ 236 237The first line of the input feeds 0 as the mode to remove the 238path; the SHA1 does not matter as long as it is well formatted. 239Then the second and third line feeds stage 1 and stage 2 entries 240for that path. After the above, we would end up with this: 241 242------------ 243$ git ls-files -s 244100644 8a1218a1024a212bb3db30becd860315f9f3ac52 1 frotz 245100755 8a1218a1024a212bb3db30becd860315f9f3ac52 2 frotz 246------------ 247 248 249Using ``assume unchanged'' bit 250------------------------------ 251 252Many operations in git depend on your filesystem to have an 253efficient `lstat(2)` implementation, so that `st_mtime` 254information for working tree files can be cheaply checked to see 255if the file contents have changed from the version recorded in 256the index file. Unfortunately, some filesystems have 257inefficient `lstat(2)`. If your filesystem is one of them, you 258can set "assume unchanged" bit to paths you have not changed to 259cause git not to do this check. Note that setting this bit on a 260path does not mean git will check the contents of the file to 261see if it has changed -- it makes git to omit any checking and 262assume it has *not* changed. When you make changes to working 263tree files, you have to explicitly tell git about it by dropping 264"assume unchanged" bit, either before or after you modify them. 265 266In order to set "assume unchanged" bit, use `--assume-unchanged` 267option. To unset, use `--no-assume-unchanged`. To see which files 268have the "assume unchanged" bit set, use `git ls-files -v` 269(see linkgit:git-ls-files[1]). 270 271The command looks at `core.ignorestat` configuration variable. When 272this is true, paths updated with `git update-index paths...` and 273paths updated with other git commands that update both index and 274working tree (e.g. 'git apply --index', 'git checkout-index -u', 275and 'git read-tree -u') are automatically marked as "assume 276unchanged". Note that "assume unchanged" bit is *not* set if 277`git update-index --refresh` finds the working tree file matches 278the index (use `git update-index --really-refresh` if you want 279to mark them as "assume unchanged"). 280 281 282Examples 283-------- 284To update and refresh only the files already checked out: 285 286---------------- 287$ git checkout-index -n -f -a && git update-index --ignore-missing --refresh 288---------------- 289 290On an inefficient filesystem with `core.ignorestat` set:: 291+ 292------------ 293$ git update-index --really-refresh <1> 294$ git update-index --no-assume-unchanged foo.c <2> 295$ git diff --name-only <3> 296$ edit foo.c 297$ git diff --name-only <4> 298M foo.c 299$ git update-index foo.c <5> 300$ git diff --name-only <6> 301$ edit foo.c 302$ git diff --name-only <7> 303$ git update-index --no-assume-unchanged foo.c <8> 304$ git diff --name-only <9> 305M foo.c 306------------ 307+ 308<1> forces lstat(2) to set "assume unchanged" bits for paths that match index. 309<2> mark the path to be edited. 310<3> this does lstat(2) and finds index matches the path. 311<4> this does lstat(2) and finds index does *not* match the path. 312<5> registering the new version to index sets "assume unchanged" bit. 313<6> and it is assumed unchanged. 314<7> even after you edit it. 315<8> you can tell about the change after the fact. 316<9> now it checks with lstat(2) and finds it has been changed. 317 318 319Skip-worktree bit 320----------------- 321 322Skip-worktree bit can be defined in one (long) sentence: When reading 323an entry, if it is marked as skip-worktree, then Git pretends its 324working directory version is up to date and read the index version 325instead. 326 327To elaborate, "reading" means checking for file existence, reading 328file attributes or file content. The working directory version may be 329present or absent. If present, its content may match against the index 330version or not. Writing is not affected by this bit, content safety 331is still first priority. Note that Git _can_ update working directory 332file, that is marked skip-worktree, if it is safe to do so (i.e. 333working directory version matches index version) 334 335Although this bit looks similar to assume-unchanged bit, its goal is 336different from assume-unchanged bit's. Skip-worktree also takes 337precedence over assume-unchanged bit when both are set. 338 339 340Configuration 341------------- 342 343The command honors `core.filemode` configuration variable. If 344your repository is on a filesystem whose executable bits are 345unreliable, this should be set to 'false' (see linkgit:git-config[1]). 346This causes the command to ignore differences in file modes recorded 347in the index and the file mode on the filesystem if they differ only on 348executable bit. On such an unfortunate filesystem, you may 349need to use 'git update-index --chmod='. 350 351Quite similarly, if `core.symlinks` configuration variable is set 352to 'false' (see linkgit:git-config[1]), symbolic links are checked out 353as plain files, and this command does not modify a recorded file mode 354from symbolic link to regular file. 355 356The command looks at `core.ignorestat` configuration variable. See 357'Using "assume unchanged" bit' section above. 358 359The command also looks at `core.trustctime` configuration variable. 360It can be useful when the inode change time is regularly modified by 361something outside Git (file system crawlers and backup systems use 362ctime for marking files processed) (see linkgit:git-config[1]). 363 364 365SEE ALSO 366-------- 367linkgit:git-config[1], 368linkgit:git-add[1], 369linkgit:git-ls-files[1] 370 371GIT 372--- 373Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite