Documentation / git-add.txton commit Merge branch 'da/mergetool-docs' (39ca1bd)
   1git-add(1)
   2==========
   3
   4NAME
   5----
   6git-add - Add file contents to the index
   7
   8SYNOPSIS
   9--------
  10[verse]
  11'git add' [-n] [-v] [--force | -f] [--interactive | -i] [--patch | -p]
  12          [--edit | -e] [--all | [--update | -u]] [--intent-to-add | -N]
  13          [--refresh] [--ignore-errors] [--ignore-missing] [--]
  14          [<filepattern>...]
  15
  16DESCRIPTION
  17-----------
  18This command updates the index using the current content found in
  19the working tree, to prepare the content staged for the next commit.
  20It typically adds the current content of existing paths as a whole,
  21but with some options it can also be used to add content with
  22only part of the changes made to the working tree files applied, or
  23remove paths that do not exist in the working tree anymore.
  24
  25The "index" holds a snapshot of the content of the working tree, and it
  26is this snapshot that is taken as the contents of the next commit.  Thus
  27after making any changes to the working directory, and before running
  28the commit command, you must use the `add` command to add any new or
  29modified files to the index.
  30
  31This command can be performed multiple times before a commit.  It only
  32adds the content of the specified file(s) at the time the add command is
  33run; if you want subsequent changes included in the next commit, then
  34you must run `git add` again to add the new content to the index.
  35
  36The `git status` command can be used to obtain a summary of which
  37files have changes that are staged for the next commit.
  38
  39The `git add` command will not add ignored files by default.  If any
  40ignored files were explicitly specified on the command line, `git add`
  41will fail with a list of ignored files.  Ignored files reached by
  42directory recursion or filename globbing performed by Git (quote your
  43globs before the shell) will be silently ignored.  The 'git add' command can
  44be used to add ignored files with the `-f` (force) option.
  45
  46Please see linkgit:git-commit[1] for alternative ways to add content to a
  47commit.
  48
  49
  50OPTIONS
  51-------
  52<filepattern>...::
  53        Files to add content from.  Fileglobs (e.g. `*.c`) can
  54        be given to add all matching files.  Also a
  55        leading directory name (e.g. `dir` to add `dir/file1`
  56        and `dir/file2`) can be given to add all files in the
  57        directory, recursively.
  58
  59-n::
  60--dry-run::
  61        Don't actually add the file(s), just show if they exist and/or will
  62        be ignored.
  63
  64-v::
  65--verbose::
  66        Be verbose.
  67
  68-f::
  69--force::
  70        Allow adding otherwise ignored files.
  71
  72-i::
  73--interactive::
  74        Add modified contents in the working tree interactively to
  75        the index. Optional path arguments may be supplied to limit
  76        operation to a subset of the working tree. See ``Interactive
  77        mode'' for details.
  78
  79-p::
  80--patch::
  81        Interactively choose hunks of patch between the index and the
  82        work tree and add them to the index. This gives the user a chance
  83        to review the difference before adding modified contents to the
  84        index.
  85+
  86This effectively runs `add --interactive`, but bypasses the
  87initial command menu and directly jumps to the `patch` subcommand.
  88See ``Interactive mode'' for details.
  89
  90-e, \--edit::
  91        Open the diff vs. the index in an editor and let the user
  92        edit it.  After the editor was closed, adjust the hunk headers
  93        and apply the patch to the index.
  94+
  95The intent of this option is to pick and choose lines of the patch to
  96apply, or even to modify the contents of lines to be staged. This can be
  97quicker and more flexible than using the interactive hunk selector.
  98However, it is easy to confuse oneself and create a patch that does not
  99apply to the index. See EDITING PATCHES below.
 100
 101-u::
 102--update::
 103        Only match <filepattern> against already tracked files in
 104        the index rather than the working tree. That means that it
 105        will never stage new files, but that it will stage modified
 106        new contents of tracked files and that it will remove files
 107        from the index if the corresponding files in the working tree
 108        have been removed.
 109+
 110If no <filepattern> is given, the current version of Git defaults to
 111"."; in other words, update all tracked files in the current directory
 112and its subdirectories. This default will change in a future version
 113of Git, hence the form without <filepattern> should not be used.
 114
 115-A::
 116--all::
 117        Like `-u`, but match <filepattern> against files in the
 118        working tree in addition to the index. That means that it
 119        will find new files as well as staging modified content and
 120        removing files that are no longer in the working tree.
 121
 122-N::
 123--intent-to-add::
 124        Record only the fact that the path will be added later. An entry
 125        for the path is placed in the index with no content. This is
 126        useful for, among other things, showing the unstaged content of
 127        such files with `git diff` and committing them with `git commit
 128        -a`.
 129
 130--refresh::
 131        Don't add the file(s), but only refresh their stat()
 132        information in the index.
 133
 134--ignore-errors::
 135        If some files could not be added because of errors indexing
 136        them, do not abort the operation, but continue adding the
 137        others. The command shall still exit with non-zero status.
 138        The configuration variable `add.ignoreErrors` can be set to
 139        true to make this the default behaviour.
 140
 141--ignore-missing::
 142        This option can only be used together with --dry-run. By using
 143        this option the user can check if any of the given files would
 144        be ignored, no matter if they are already present in the work
 145        tree or not.
 146
 147\--::
 148        This option can be used to separate command-line options from
 149        the list of files, (useful when filenames might be mistaken
 150        for command-line options).
 151
 152
 153Configuration
 154-------------
 155
 156The optional configuration variable `core.excludesfile` indicates a path to a
 157file containing patterns of file names to exclude from git-add, similar to
 158$GIT_DIR/info/exclude.  Patterns in the exclude file are used in addition to
 159those in info/exclude.  See linkgit:gitignore[5].
 160
 161
 162EXAMPLES
 163--------
 164
 165* Adds content from all `*.txt` files under `Documentation` directory
 166and its subdirectories:
 167+
 168------------
 169$ git add Documentation/\*.txt
 170------------
 171+
 172Note that the asterisk `*` is quoted from the shell in this
 173example; this lets the command include the files from
 174subdirectories of `Documentation/` directory.
 175
 176* Considers adding content from all git-*.sh scripts:
 177+
 178------------
 179$ git add git-*.sh
 180------------
 181+
 182Because this example lets the shell expand the asterisk (i.e. you are
 183listing the files explicitly), it does not consider
 184`subdir/git-foo.sh`.
 185
 186Interactive mode
 187----------------
 188When the command enters the interactive mode, it shows the
 189output of the 'status' subcommand, and then goes into its
 190interactive command loop.
 191
 192The command loop shows the list of subcommands available, and
 193gives a prompt "What now> ".  In general, when the prompt ends
 194with a single '>', you can pick only one of the choices given
 195and type return, like this:
 196
 197------------
 198    *** Commands ***
 199      1: status       2: update       3: revert       4: add untracked
 200      5: patch        6: diff         7: quit         8: help
 201    What now> 1
 202------------
 203
 204You also could say `s` or `sta` or `status` above as long as the
 205choice is unique.
 206
 207The main command loop has 6 subcommands (plus help and quit).
 208
 209status::
 210
 211   This shows the change between HEAD and index (i.e. what will be
 212   committed if you say `git commit`), and between index and
 213   working tree files (i.e. what you could stage further before
 214   `git commit` using `git add`) for each path.  A sample output
 215   looks like this:
 216+
 217------------
 218              staged     unstaged path
 219     1:       binary      nothing foo.png
 220     2:     +403/-35        +1/-1 git-add--interactive.perl
 221------------
 222+
 223It shows that foo.png has differences from HEAD (but that is
 224binary so line count cannot be shown) and there is no
 225difference between indexed copy and the working tree
 226version (if the working tree version were also different,
 227'binary' would have been shown in place of 'nothing').  The
 228other file, git-add{litdd}interactive.perl, has 403 lines added
 229and 35 lines deleted if you commit what is in the index, but
 230working tree file has further modifications (one addition and
 231one deletion).
 232
 233update::
 234
 235   This shows the status information and issues an "Update>>"
 236   prompt.  When the prompt ends with double '>>', you can
 237   make more than one selection, concatenated with whitespace or
 238   comma.  Also you can say ranges.  E.g. "2-5 7,9" to choose
 239   2,3,4,5,7,9 from the list.  If the second number in a range is
 240   omitted, all remaining patches are taken.  E.g. "7-" to choose
 241   7,8,9 from the list.  You can say '*' to choose everything.
 242+
 243What you chose are then highlighted with '*',
 244like this:
 245+
 246------------
 247           staged     unstaged path
 248  1:       binary      nothing foo.png
 249* 2:     +403/-35        +1/-1 git-add--interactive.perl
 250------------
 251+
 252To remove selection, prefix the input with `-`
 253like this:
 254+
 255------------
 256Update>> -2
 257------------
 258+
 259After making the selection, answer with an empty line to stage the
 260contents of working tree files for selected paths in the index.
 261
 262revert::
 263
 264  This has a very similar UI to 'update', and the staged
 265  information for selected paths are reverted to that of the
 266  HEAD version.  Reverting new paths makes them untracked.
 267
 268add untracked::
 269
 270  This has a very similar UI to 'update' and
 271  'revert', and lets you add untracked paths to the index.
 272
 273patch::
 274
 275  This lets you choose one path out of a 'status' like selection.
 276  After choosing the path, it presents the diff between the index
 277  and the working tree file and asks you if you want to stage
 278  the change of each hunk.  You can select one of the following
 279  options and type return:
 280
 281       y - stage this hunk
 282       n - do not stage this hunk
 283       q - quit; do not stage this hunk nor any of the remaining ones
 284       a - stage this hunk and all later hunks in the file
 285       d - do not stage this hunk nor any of the later hunks in the file
 286       g - select a hunk to go to
 287       / - search for a hunk matching the given regex
 288       j - leave this hunk undecided, see next undecided hunk
 289       J - leave this hunk undecided, see next hunk
 290       k - leave this hunk undecided, see previous undecided hunk
 291       K - leave this hunk undecided, see previous hunk
 292       s - split the current hunk into smaller hunks
 293       e - manually edit the current hunk
 294       ? - print help
 295+
 296After deciding the fate for all hunks, if there is any hunk
 297that was chosen, the index is updated with the selected hunks.
 298+
 299You can omit having to type return here, by setting the configuration
 300variable `interactive.singlekey` to `true`.
 301
 302diff::
 303
 304  This lets you review what will be committed (i.e. between
 305  HEAD and index).
 306
 307
 308EDITING PATCHES
 309---------------
 310
 311Invoking `git add -e` or selecting `e` from the interactive hunk
 312selector will open a patch in your editor; after the editor exits, the
 313result is applied to the index. You are free to make arbitrary changes
 314to the patch, but note that some changes may have confusing results, or
 315even result in a patch that cannot be applied.  If you want to abort the
 316operation entirely (i.e., stage nothing new in the index), simply delete
 317all lines of the patch. The list below describes some common things you
 318may see in a patch, and which editing operations make sense on them.
 319
 320--
 321added content::
 322
 323Added content is represented by lines beginning with "{plus}". You can
 324prevent staging any addition lines by deleting them.
 325
 326removed content::
 327
 328Removed content is represented by lines beginning with "-". You can
 329prevent staging their removal by converting the "-" to a " " (space).
 330
 331modified content::
 332
 333Modified content is represented by "-" lines (removing the old content)
 334followed by "{plus}" lines (adding the replacement content). You can
 335prevent staging the modification by converting "-" lines to " ", and
 336removing "{plus}" lines. Beware that modifying only half of the pair is
 337likely to introduce confusing changes to the index.
 338--
 339
 340There are also more complex operations that can be performed. But beware
 341that because the patch is applied only to the index and not the working
 342tree, the working tree will appear to "undo" the change in the index.
 343For example, introducing a new line into the index that is in neither
 344the HEAD nor the working tree will stage the new line for commit, but
 345the line will appear to be reverted in the working tree.
 346
 347Avoid using these constructs, or do so with extreme caution.
 348
 349--
 350removing untouched content::
 351
 352Content which does not differ between the index and working tree may be
 353shown on context lines, beginning with a " " (space).  You can stage
 354context lines for removal by converting the space to a "-". The
 355resulting working tree file will appear to re-add the content.
 356
 357modifying existing content::
 358
 359One can also modify context lines by staging them for removal (by
 360converting " " to "-") and adding a "{plus}" line with the new content.
 361Similarly, one can modify "{plus}" lines for existing additions or
 362modifications. In all cases, the new modification will appear reverted
 363in the working tree.
 364
 365new content::
 366
 367You may also add new content that does not exist in the patch; simply
 368add new lines, each starting with "{plus}". The addition will appear
 369reverted in the working tree.
 370--
 371
 372There are also several operations which should be avoided entirely, as
 373they will make the patch impossible to apply:
 374
 375* adding context (" ") or removal ("-") lines
 376* deleting context or removal lines
 377* modifying the contents of context or removal lines
 378
 379SEE ALSO
 380--------
 381linkgit:git-status[1]
 382linkgit:git-rm[1]
 383linkgit:git-reset[1]
 384linkgit:git-mv[1]
 385linkgit:git-commit[1]
 386linkgit:git-update-index[1]
 387
 388GIT
 389---
 390Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite