Documentation / git-add.txton commit Merge branch 'jh/notes' (early part) (5fc9df0)
   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] [--] [<filepattern>...]
  14
  15DESCRIPTION
  16-----------
  17This command updates the index using the current content found in
  18the working tree, to prepare the content staged for the next commit.
  19It typically adds the current content of existing paths as a whole,
  20but with some options it can also be used to add content with
  21only part of the changes made to the working tree files applied, or
  22remove paths that do not exist in the working tree anymore.
  23
  24The "index" holds a snapshot of the content of the working tree, and it
  25is this snapshot that is taken as the contents of the next commit.  Thus
  26after making any changes to the working directory, and before running
  27the commit command, you must use the `add` command to add any new or
  28modified files to the index.
  29
  30This command can be performed multiple times before a commit.  It only
  31adds the content of the specified file(s) at the time the add command is
  32run; if you want subsequent changes included in the next commit, then
  33you must run `git add` again to add the new content to the index.
  34
  35The `git status` command can be used to obtain a summary of which
  36files have changes that are staged for the next commit.
  37
  38The `git add` command will not add ignored files by default.  If any
  39ignored files were explicitly specified on the command line, `git add`
  40will fail with a list of ignored files.  Ignored files reached by
  41directory recursion or filename globbing performed by Git (quote your
  42globs before the shell) will be silently ignored.  The `add` command can
  43be used to add ignored files with the `-f` (force) option.
  44
  45Please see linkgit:git-commit[1] for alternative ways to add content to a
  46commit.
  47
  48
  49OPTIONS
  50-------
  51<filepattern>...::
  52        Files to add content from.  Fileglobs (e.g. `*.c`) can
  53        be given to add all matching files.  Also a
  54        leading directory name (e.g. `dir` to add `dir/file1`
  55        and `dir/file2`) can be given to add all files in the
  56        directory, recursively.
  57
  58-n::
  59--dry-run::
  60        Don't actually add the file(s), just show if they exist.
  61
  62-v::
  63--verbose::
  64        Be verbose.
  65
  66-f::
  67--force::
  68        Allow adding otherwise ignored files.
  69
  70-i::
  71--interactive::
  72        Add modified contents in the working tree interactively to
  73        the index. Optional path arguments may be supplied to limit
  74        operation to a subset of the working tree. See ``Interactive
  75        mode'' for details.
  76
  77-p::
  78--patch::
  79        Interactively choose hunks of patch between the index and the
  80        work tree and add them to the index. This gives the user a chance
  81        to review the difference before adding modified contents to the
  82        index.
  83+
  84This effectively runs `add --interactive`, but bypasses the
  85initial command menu and directly jumps to the `patch` subcommand.
  86See ``Interactive mode'' for details.
  87
  88-e, \--edit::
  89        Open the diff vs. the index in an editor and let the user
  90        edit it.  After the editor was closed, adjust the hunk headers
  91        and apply the patch to the index.
  92+
  93*NOTE*: Obviously, if you change anything else than the first character
  94on lines beginning with a space or a minus, the patch will no longer
  95apply.
  96
  97-u::
  98--update::
  99        Only match <filepattern> against already tracked files in
 100        the index rather than the working tree. That means that it
 101        will never stage new files, but that it will stage modified
 102        new contents of tracked files and that it will remove files
 103        from the index if the corresponding files in the working tree
 104        have been removed.
 105+
 106If no <filepattern> is given, default to "."; in other words,
 107update all tracked files in the current directory and its
 108subdirectories.
 109
 110-A::
 111--all::
 112        Like `-u`, but match <filepattern> against files in the
 113        working tree in addition to the index. That means that it
 114        will find new files as well as staging modified content and
 115        removing files that are no longer in the working tree.
 116
 117-N::
 118--intent-to-add::
 119        Record only the fact that the path will be added later. An entry
 120        for the path is placed in the index with no content. This is
 121        useful for, among other things, showing the unstaged content of
 122        such files with `git diff` and committing them with `git commit
 123        -a`.
 124
 125--refresh::
 126        Don't add the file(s), but only refresh their stat()
 127        information in the index.
 128
 129--ignore-errors::
 130        If some files could not be added because of errors indexing
 131        them, do not abort the operation, but continue adding the
 132        others. The command shall still exit with non-zero status.
 133
 134\--::
 135        This option can be used to separate command-line options from
 136        the list of files, (useful when filenames might be mistaken
 137        for command-line options).
 138
 139
 140Configuration
 141-------------
 142
 143The optional configuration variable `core.excludesfile` indicates a path to a
 144file containing patterns of file names to exclude from git-add, similar to
 145$GIT_DIR/info/exclude.  Patterns in the exclude file are used in addition to
 146those in info/exclude.  See linkgit:gitrepository-layout[5].
 147
 148
 149EXAMPLES
 150--------
 151
 152* Adds content from all `\*.txt` files under `Documentation` directory
 153and its subdirectories:
 154+
 155------------
 156$ git add Documentation/\\*.txt
 157------------
 158+
 159Note that the asterisk `\*` is quoted from the shell in this
 160example; this lets the command include the files from
 161subdirectories of `Documentation/` directory.
 162
 163* Considers adding content from all git-*.sh scripts:
 164+
 165------------
 166$ git add git-*.sh
 167------------
 168+
 169Because this example lets the shell expand the asterisk (i.e. you are
 170listing the files explicitly), it does not consider
 171`subdir/git-foo.sh`.
 172
 173Interactive mode
 174----------------
 175When the command enters the interactive mode, it shows the
 176output of the 'status' subcommand, and then goes into its
 177interactive command loop.
 178
 179The command loop shows the list of subcommands available, and
 180gives a prompt "What now> ".  In general, when the prompt ends
 181with a single '>', you can pick only one of the choices given
 182and type return, like this:
 183
 184------------
 185    *** Commands ***
 186      1: status       2: update       3: revert       4: add untracked
 187      5: patch        6: diff         7: quit         8: help
 188    What now> 1
 189------------
 190
 191You also could say `s` or `sta` or `status` above as long as the
 192choice is unique.
 193
 194The main command loop has 6 subcommands (plus help and quit).
 195
 196status::
 197
 198   This shows the change between HEAD and index (i.e. what will be
 199   committed if you say `git commit`), and between index and
 200   working tree files (i.e. what you could stage further before
 201   `git commit` using `git add`) for each path.  A sample output
 202   looks like this:
 203+
 204------------
 205              staged     unstaged path
 206     1:       binary      nothing foo.png
 207     2:     +403/-35        +1/-1 git-add--interactive.perl
 208------------
 209+
 210It shows that foo.png has differences from HEAD (but that is
 211binary so line count cannot be shown) and there is no
 212difference between indexed copy and the working tree
 213version (if the working tree version were also different,
 214'binary' would have been shown in place of 'nothing').  The
 215other file, git-add--interactive.perl, has 403 lines added
 216and 35 lines deleted if you commit what is in the index, but
 217working tree file has further modifications (one addition and
 218one deletion).
 219
 220update::
 221
 222   This shows the status information and issues an "Update>>"
 223   prompt.  When the prompt ends with double '>>', you can
 224   make more than one selection, concatenated with whitespace or
 225   comma.  Also you can say ranges.  E.g. "2-5 7,9" to choose
 226   2,3,4,5,7,9 from the list.  If the second number in a range is
 227   omitted, all remaining patches are taken.  E.g. "7-" to choose
 228   7,8,9 from the list.  You can say '*' to choose everything.
 229+
 230What you chose are then highlighted with '*',
 231like this:
 232+
 233------------
 234           staged     unstaged path
 235  1:       binary      nothing foo.png
 236* 2:     +403/-35        +1/-1 git-add--interactive.perl
 237------------
 238+
 239To remove selection, prefix the input with `-`
 240like this:
 241+
 242------------
 243Update>> -2
 244------------
 245+
 246After making the selection, answer with an empty line to stage the
 247contents of working tree files for selected paths in the index.
 248
 249revert::
 250
 251  This has a very similar UI to 'update', and the staged
 252  information for selected paths are reverted to that of the
 253  HEAD version.  Reverting new paths makes them untracked.
 254
 255add untracked::
 256
 257  This has a very similar UI to 'update' and
 258  'revert', and lets you add untracked paths to the index.
 259
 260patch::
 261
 262  This lets you choose one path out of a 'status' like selection.
 263  After choosing the path, it presents the diff between the index
 264  and the working tree file and asks you if you want to stage
 265  the change of each hunk.  You can say:
 266
 267       y - stage this hunk
 268       n - do not stage this hunk
 269       q - quit, do not stage this hunk nor any of the remaining ones
 270       a - stage this and all the remaining hunks in the file
 271       d - do not stage this hunk nor any of the remaining hunks in the file
 272       g - select a hunk to go to
 273       / - search for a hunk matching the given regex
 274       j - leave this hunk undecided, see next undecided hunk
 275       J - leave this hunk undecided, see next hunk
 276       k - leave this hunk undecided, see previous undecided hunk
 277       K - leave this hunk undecided, see previous hunk
 278       s - split the current hunk into smaller hunks
 279       e - manually edit the current hunk
 280       ? - print help
 281+
 282After deciding the fate for all hunks, if there is any hunk
 283that was chosen, the index is updated with the selected hunks.
 284
 285diff::
 286
 287  This lets you review what will be committed (i.e. between
 288  HEAD and index).
 289
 290SEE ALSO
 291--------
 292linkgit:git-status[1]
 293linkgit:git-rm[1]
 294linkgit:git-reset[1]
 295linkgit:git-mv[1]
 296linkgit:git-commit[1]
 297linkgit:git-update-index[1]
 298
 299Author
 300------
 301Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
 302
 303Documentation
 304--------------
 305Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.
 306
 307GIT
 308---
 309Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite