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 [--[no-]assume-unchanged] 18 [--[no-]skip-worktree] 19 [--ignore-submodules] 20 [--really-refresh] [--unresolve] [--again | -g] 21 [--info-only] [--index-info] 22 [-z] [--stdin] [--index-version <n>] 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--cacheinfo <mode> <object> <path>:: 73 Directly insert the specified info into the index. For 74 backward compatibility, you can also give these three 75 arguments as three separate parameters, but new users are 76 encouraged to use a single-parameter form. 77 78--index-info:: 79 Read index information from stdin. 80 81--chmod=(+|-)x:: 82 Set the execute permissions on the updated files. 83 84--[no-]assume-unchanged:: 85 When this flag is specified, the object names recorded 86 for the paths are not updated. Instead, this option 87 sets/unsets the "assume unchanged" bit for the 88 paths. When the "assume unchanged" bit is on, the user 89 promises not to change the file and allows Git to assume 90 that the working tree file matches what is recorded in 91 the index. If you want to change the working tree file, 92 you need to unset the bit to tell Git. This is 93 sometimes helpful when working with a big project on a 94 filesystem that has very slow lstat(2) system call 95 (e.g. cifs). 96+ 97Git will fail (gracefully) in case it needs to modify this file 98in the index e.g. when merging in a commit; 99thus, in case the assumed-untracked file is changed upstream, 100you will need to handle the situation manually. 101 102--really-refresh:: 103 Like '--refresh', but checks stat information unconditionally, 104 without regard to the "assume unchanged" setting. 105 106--[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--index-version <n>:: 147 Write the resulting index out in the named on-disk format version. 148 Supported versions are 2, 3 and 4. The current default version is 2 149 or 3, depending on whether extra features are used, such as 150 `git add -N`. 151+ 152Version 4 performs a simple pathname compression that reduces index 153size by 30%-50% on large repositories, which results in faster load 154time. Version 4 is relatively young (first released in in 1.8.0 in 155October 2012). Other Git implementations such as JGit and libgit2 156may not support it yet. 157 158-z:: 159 Only meaningful with `--stdin` or `--index-info`; paths are 160 separated with NUL character instead of LF. 161 162--split-index:: 163--no-split-index:: 164 Enable or disable split index mode. If enabled, the index is 165 split into two files, $GIT_DIR/index and $GIT_DIR/sharedindex.<SHA-1>. 166 Changes are accumulated in $GIT_DIR/index while the shared 167 index file contains all index entries stays unchanged. If 168 split-index mode is already enabled and `--split-index` is 169 given again, all changes in $GIT_DIR/index are pushed back to 170 the shared index file. This mode is designed for very large 171 indexes that take a significant amount of time to read or write. 172 173--untracked-cache:: 174--no-untracked-cache:: 175 Enable or disable untracked cache extension. This could speed 176 up for commands that involve determining untracked files such 177 as `git status`. The underlying operating system and file 178 system must change `st_mtime` field of a directory if files 179 are added or deleted in that directory. 180 181\--:: 182 Do not interpret any more arguments as options. 183 184<file>:: 185 Files to act on. 186 Note that files beginning with '.' are discarded. This includes 187 `./file` and `dir/./file`. If you don't want this, then use 188 cleaner names. 189 The same applies to directories ending '/' and paths with '//' 190 191Using --refresh 192--------------- 193'--refresh' does not calculate a new sha1 file or bring the index 194up-to-date for mode/content changes. But what it *does* do is to 195"re-match" the stat information of a file with the index, so that you 196can refresh the index for a file that hasn't been changed but where 197the stat entry is out of date. 198 199For example, you'd want to do this after doing a 'git read-tree', to link 200up the stat index details with the proper files. 201 202Using --cacheinfo or --info-only 203-------------------------------- 204'--cacheinfo' is used to register a file that is not in the 205current working directory. This is useful for minimum-checkout 206merging. 207 208To pretend you have a file with mode and sha1 at path, say: 209 210---------------- 211$ git update-index --cacheinfo <mode>,<sha1>,<path> 212---------------- 213 214'--info-only' is used to register files without placing them in the object 215database. This is useful for status-only repositories. 216 217Both '--cacheinfo' and '--info-only' behave similarly: the index is updated 218but the object database isn't. '--cacheinfo' is useful when the object is 219in the database but the file isn't available locally. '--info-only' is 220useful when the file is available, but you do not wish to update the 221object database. 222 223 224Using --index-info 225------------------ 226 227`--index-info` is a more powerful mechanism that lets you feed 228multiple entry definitions from the standard input, and designed 229specifically for scripts. It can take inputs of three formats: 230 231 . mode SP sha1 TAB path 232+ 233The first format is what "git-apply --index-info" 234reports, and used to reconstruct a partial tree 235that is used for phony merge base tree when falling 236back on 3-way merge. 237 238 . mode SP type SP sha1 TAB path 239+ 240The second format is to stuff 'git ls-tree' output 241into the index file. 242 243 . mode SP sha1 SP stage TAB path 244+ 245This format is to put higher order stages into the 246index file and matches 'git ls-files --stage' output. 247 248To place a higher stage entry to the index, the path should 249first be removed by feeding a mode=0 entry for the path, and 250then feeding necessary input lines in the third format. 251 252For example, starting with this index: 253 254------------ 255$ git ls-files -s 256100644 8a1218a1024a212bb3db30becd860315f9f3ac52 0 frotz 257------------ 258 259you can feed the following input to `--index-info`: 260 261------------ 262$ git update-index --index-info 2630 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000 frotz 264100644 8a1218a1024a212bb3db30becd860315f9f3ac52 1 frotz 265100755 8a1218a1024a212bb3db30becd860315f9f3ac52 2 frotz 266------------ 267 268The first line of the input feeds 0 as the mode to remove the 269path; the SHA-1 does not matter as long as it is well formatted. 270Then the second and third line feeds stage 1 and stage 2 entries 271for that path. After the above, we would end up with this: 272 273------------ 274$ git ls-files -s 275100644 8a1218a1024a212bb3db30becd860315f9f3ac52 1 frotz 276100755 8a1218a1024a212bb3db30becd860315f9f3ac52 2 frotz 277------------ 278 279 280Using ``assume unchanged'' bit 281------------------------------ 282 283Many operations in Git depend on your filesystem to have an 284efficient `lstat(2)` implementation, so that `st_mtime` 285information for working tree files can be cheaply checked to see 286if the file contents have changed from the version recorded in 287the index file. Unfortunately, some filesystems have 288inefficient `lstat(2)`. If your filesystem is one of them, you 289can set "assume unchanged" bit to paths you have not changed to 290cause Git not to do this check. Note that setting this bit on a 291path does not mean Git will check the contents of the file to 292see if it has changed -- it makes Git to omit any checking and 293assume it has *not* changed. When you make changes to working 294tree files, you have to explicitly tell Git about it by dropping 295"assume unchanged" bit, either before or after you modify them. 296 297In order to set "assume unchanged" bit, use `--assume-unchanged` 298option. To unset, use `--no-assume-unchanged`. To see which files 299have the "assume unchanged" bit set, use `git ls-files -v` 300(see linkgit:git-ls-files[1]). 301 302The command looks at `core.ignorestat` configuration variable. When 303this is true, paths updated with `git update-index paths...` and 304paths updated with other Git commands that update both index and 305working tree (e.g. 'git apply --index', 'git checkout-index -u', 306and 'git read-tree -u') are automatically marked as "assume 307unchanged". Note that "assume unchanged" bit is *not* set if 308`git update-index --refresh` finds the working tree file matches 309the index (use `git update-index --really-refresh` if you want 310to mark them as "assume unchanged"). 311 312 313Examples 314-------- 315To update and refresh only the files already checked out: 316 317---------------- 318$ git checkout-index -n -f -a && git update-index --ignore-missing --refresh 319---------------- 320 321On an inefficient filesystem with `core.ignorestat` set:: 322+ 323------------ 324$ git update-index --really-refresh <1> 325$ git update-index --no-assume-unchanged foo.c <2> 326$ git diff --name-only <3> 327$ edit foo.c 328$ git diff --name-only <4> 329M foo.c 330$ git update-index foo.c <5> 331$ git diff --name-only <6> 332$ edit foo.c 333$ git diff --name-only <7> 334$ git update-index --no-assume-unchanged foo.c <8> 335$ git diff --name-only <9> 336M foo.c 337------------ 338+ 339<1> forces lstat(2) to set "assume unchanged" bits for paths that match index. 340<2> mark the path to be edited. 341<3> this does lstat(2) and finds index matches the path. 342<4> this does lstat(2) and finds index does *not* match the path. 343<5> registering the new version to index sets "assume unchanged" bit. 344<6> and it is assumed unchanged. 345<7> even after you edit it. 346<8> you can tell about the change after the fact. 347<9> now it checks with lstat(2) and finds it has been changed. 348 349 350Skip-worktree bit 351----------------- 352 353Skip-worktree bit can be defined in one (long) sentence: When reading 354an entry, if it is marked as skip-worktree, then Git pretends its 355working directory version is up to date and read the index version 356instead. 357 358To elaborate, "reading" means checking for file existence, reading 359file attributes or file content. The working directory version may be 360present or absent. If present, its content may match against the index 361version or not. Writing is not affected by this bit, content safety 362is still first priority. Note that Git _can_ update working directory 363file, that is marked skip-worktree, if it is safe to do so (i.e. 364working directory version matches index version) 365 366Although this bit looks similar to assume-unchanged bit, its goal is 367different from assume-unchanged bit's. Skip-worktree also takes 368precedence over assume-unchanged bit when both are set. 369 370 371Configuration 372------------- 373 374The command honors `core.filemode` configuration variable. If 375your repository is on a filesystem whose executable bits are 376unreliable, this should be set to 'false' (see linkgit:git-config[1]). 377This causes the command to ignore differences in file modes recorded 378in the index and the file mode on the filesystem if they differ only on 379executable bit. On such an unfortunate filesystem, you may 380need to use 'git update-index --chmod='. 381 382Quite similarly, if `core.symlinks` configuration variable is set 383to 'false' (see linkgit:git-config[1]), symbolic links are checked out 384as plain files, and this command does not modify a recorded file mode 385from symbolic link to regular file. 386 387The command looks at `core.ignorestat` configuration variable. See 388'Using "assume unchanged" bit' section above. 389 390The command also looks at `core.trustctime` configuration variable. 391It can be useful when the inode change time is regularly modified by 392something outside Git (file system crawlers and backup systems use 393ctime for marking files processed) (see linkgit:git-config[1]). 394 395 396SEE ALSO 397-------- 398linkgit:git-config[1], 399linkgit:git-add[1], 400linkgit:git-ls-files[1] 401 402GIT 403--- 404Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite