Documentation / git-add.txton commit Merge branch 'rs/fsck-null-return-from-lookup' (6defdc9)
   1git-add(1)
   2==========
   3
   4NAME
   5----
   6git-add - Add file contents to the index
   7
   8SYNOPSIS
   9--------
  10[verse]
  11'git add' [--verbose | -v] [--dry-run | -n] [--force | -f] [--interactive | -i] [--patch | -p]
  12          [--edit | -e] [--[no-]all | --[no-]ignore-removal | [--update | -u]]
  13          [--intent-to-add | -N] [--refresh] [--ignore-errors] [--ignore-missing]
  14          [--chmod=(+|-)x] [--] [<pathspec>...]
  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 tree, 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<pathspec>...::
  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 update the index to
  57        match the current state of the directory as a whole (e.g.
  58        specifying `dir` will record not just a file `dir/file1`
  59        modified in the working tree, a file `dir/file2` added to
  60        the working tree, but also a file `dir/file3` removed from
  61        the working tree.  Note that older versions of Git used
  62        to ignore removed files; use `--no-all` option if you want
  63        to add modified or new files but ignore removed ones.
  64+
  65For more details about the <pathspec> syntax, see the 'pathspec' entry
  66in linkgit:gitglossary[7].
  67
  68-n::
  69--dry-run::
  70        Don't actually add the file(s), just show if they exist and/or will
  71        be ignored.
  72
  73-v::
  74--verbose::
  75        Be verbose.
  76
  77-f::
  78--force::
  79        Allow adding otherwise ignored files.
  80
  81-i::
  82--interactive::
  83        Add modified contents in the working tree interactively to
  84        the index. Optional path arguments may be supplied to limit
  85        operation to a subset of the working tree. See ``Interactive
  86        mode'' for details.
  87
  88-p::
  89--patch::
  90        Interactively choose hunks of patch between the index and the
  91        work tree and add them to the index. This gives the user a chance
  92        to review the difference before adding modified contents to the
  93        index.
  94+
  95This effectively runs `add --interactive`, but bypasses the
  96initial command menu and directly jumps to the `patch` subcommand.
  97See ``Interactive mode'' for details.
  98
  99-e::
 100--edit::
 101        Open the diff vs. the index in an editor and let the user
 102        edit it.  After the editor was closed, adjust the hunk headers
 103        and apply the patch to the index.
 104+
 105The intent of this option is to pick and choose lines of the patch to
 106apply, or even to modify the contents of lines to be staged. This can be
 107quicker and more flexible than using the interactive hunk selector.
 108However, it is easy to confuse oneself and create a patch that does not
 109apply to the index. See EDITING PATCHES below.
 110
 111-u::
 112--update::
 113        Update the index just where it already has an entry matching
 114        <pathspec>.  This removes as well as modifies index entries to
 115        match the working tree, but adds no new files.
 116+
 117If no <pathspec> is given when `-u` option is used, all
 118tracked files in the entire working tree are updated (old versions
 119of Git used to limit the update to the current directory and its
 120subdirectories).
 121
 122-A::
 123--all::
 124--no-ignore-removal::
 125        Update the index not only where the working tree has a file
 126        matching <pathspec> but also where the index already has an
 127        entry.  This adds, modifies, and removes index entries to
 128        match the working tree.
 129+
 130If no <pathspec> is given when `-A` option is used, all
 131files in the entire working tree are updated (old versions
 132of Git used to limit the update to the current directory and its
 133subdirectories).
 134
 135--no-all::
 136--ignore-removal::
 137        Update the index by adding new files that are unknown to the
 138        index and files modified in the working tree, but ignore
 139        files that have been removed from the working tree.  This
 140        option is a no-op when no <pathspec> is used.
 141+
 142This option is primarily to help users who are used to older
 143versions of Git, whose "git add <pathspec>..." was a synonym
 144for "git add --no-all <pathspec>...", i.e. ignored removed files.
 145
 146-N::
 147--intent-to-add::
 148        Record only the fact that the path will be added later. An entry
 149        for the path is placed in the index with no content. This is
 150        useful for, among other things, showing the unstaged content of
 151        such files with `git diff` and committing them with `git commit
 152        -a`.
 153
 154--refresh::
 155        Don't add the file(s), but only refresh their stat()
 156        information in the index.
 157
 158--ignore-errors::
 159        If some files could not be added because of errors indexing
 160        them, do not abort the operation, but continue adding the
 161        others. The command shall still exit with non-zero status.
 162        The configuration variable `add.ignoreErrors` can be set to
 163        true to make this the default behaviour.
 164
 165--ignore-missing::
 166        This option can only be used together with --dry-run. By using
 167        this option the user can check if any of the given files would
 168        be ignored, no matter if they are already present in the work
 169        tree or not.
 170
 171--no-warn-embedded-repo::
 172        By default, `git add` will warn when adding an embedded
 173        repository to the index without using `git submodule add` to
 174        create an entry in `.gitmodules`. This option will suppress the
 175        warning (e.g., if you are manually performing operations on
 176        submodules).
 177
 178--chmod=(+|-)x::
 179        Override the executable bit of the added files.  The executable
 180        bit is only changed in the index, the files on disk are left
 181        unchanged.
 182
 183\--::
 184        This option can be used to separate command-line options from
 185        the list of files, (useful when filenames might be mistaken
 186        for command-line options).
 187
 188
 189Configuration
 190-------------
 191
 192The optional configuration variable `core.excludesFile` indicates a path to a
 193file containing patterns of file names to exclude from git-add, similar to
 194$GIT_DIR/info/exclude.  Patterns in the exclude file are used in addition to
 195those in info/exclude.  See linkgit:gitignore[5].
 196
 197
 198EXAMPLES
 199--------
 200
 201* Adds content from all `*.txt` files under `Documentation` directory
 202and its subdirectories:
 203+
 204------------
 205$ git add Documentation/\*.txt
 206------------
 207+
 208Note that the asterisk `*` is quoted from the shell in this
 209example; this lets the command include the files from
 210subdirectories of `Documentation/` directory.
 211
 212* Considers adding content from all git-*.sh scripts:
 213+
 214------------
 215$ git add git-*.sh
 216------------
 217+
 218Because this example lets the shell expand the asterisk (i.e. you are
 219listing the files explicitly), it does not consider
 220`subdir/git-foo.sh`.
 221
 222Interactive mode
 223----------------
 224When the command enters the interactive mode, it shows the
 225output of the 'status' subcommand, and then goes into its
 226interactive command loop.
 227
 228The command loop shows the list of subcommands available, and
 229gives a prompt "What now> ".  In general, when the prompt ends
 230with a single '>', you can pick only one of the choices given
 231and type return, like this:
 232
 233------------
 234    *** Commands ***
 235      1: status       2: update       3: revert       4: add untracked
 236      5: patch        6: diff         7: quit         8: help
 237    What now> 1
 238------------
 239
 240You also could say `s` or `sta` or `status` above as long as the
 241choice is unique.
 242
 243The main command loop has 6 subcommands (plus help and quit).
 244
 245status::
 246
 247   This shows the change between HEAD and index (i.e. what will be
 248   committed if you say `git commit`), and between index and
 249   working tree files (i.e. what you could stage further before
 250   `git commit` using `git add`) for each path.  A sample output
 251   looks like this:
 252+
 253------------
 254              staged     unstaged path
 255     1:       binary      nothing foo.png
 256     2:     +403/-35        +1/-1 git-add--interactive.perl
 257------------
 258+
 259It shows that foo.png has differences from HEAD (but that is
 260binary so line count cannot be shown) and there is no
 261difference between indexed copy and the working tree
 262version (if the working tree version were also different,
 263'binary' would have been shown in place of 'nothing').  The
 264other file, git-add{litdd}interactive.perl, has 403 lines added
 265and 35 lines deleted if you commit what is in the index, but
 266working tree file has further modifications (one addition and
 267one deletion).
 268
 269update::
 270
 271   This shows the status information and issues an "Update>>"
 272   prompt.  When the prompt ends with double '>>', you can
 273   make more than one selection, concatenated with whitespace or
 274   comma.  Also you can say ranges.  E.g. "2-5 7,9" to choose
 275   2,3,4,5,7,9 from the list.  If the second number in a range is
 276   omitted, all remaining patches are taken.  E.g. "7-" to choose
 277   7,8,9 from the list.  You can say '*' to choose everything.
 278+
 279What you chose are then highlighted with '*',
 280like this:
 281+
 282------------
 283           staged     unstaged path
 284  1:       binary      nothing foo.png
 285* 2:     +403/-35        +1/-1 git-add--interactive.perl
 286------------
 287+
 288To remove selection, prefix the input with `-`
 289like this:
 290+
 291------------
 292Update>> -2
 293------------
 294+
 295After making the selection, answer with an empty line to stage the
 296contents of working tree files for selected paths in the index.
 297
 298revert::
 299
 300  This has a very similar UI to 'update', and the staged
 301  information for selected paths are reverted to that of the
 302  HEAD version.  Reverting new paths makes them untracked.
 303
 304add untracked::
 305
 306  This has a very similar UI to 'update' and
 307  'revert', and lets you add untracked paths to the index.
 308
 309patch::
 310
 311  This lets you choose one path out of a 'status' like selection.
 312  After choosing the path, it presents the diff between the index
 313  and the working tree file and asks you if you want to stage
 314  the change of each hunk.  You can select one of the following
 315  options and type return:
 316
 317       y - stage this hunk
 318       n - do not stage this hunk
 319       q - quit; do not stage this hunk or any of the remaining ones
 320       a - stage this hunk and all later hunks in the file
 321       d - do not stage this hunk or any of the later hunks in the file
 322       g - select a hunk to go to
 323       / - search for a hunk matching the given regex
 324       j - leave this hunk undecided, see next undecided hunk
 325       J - leave this hunk undecided, see next hunk
 326       k - leave this hunk undecided, see previous undecided hunk
 327       K - leave this hunk undecided, see previous hunk
 328       s - split the current hunk into smaller hunks
 329       e - manually edit the current hunk
 330       ? - print help
 331+
 332After deciding the fate for all hunks, if there is any hunk
 333that was chosen, the index is updated with the selected hunks.
 334+
 335You can omit having to type return here, by setting the configuration
 336variable `interactive.singleKey` to `true`.
 337
 338diff::
 339
 340  This lets you review what will be committed (i.e. between
 341  HEAD and index).
 342
 343
 344EDITING PATCHES
 345---------------
 346
 347Invoking `git add -e` or selecting `e` from the interactive hunk
 348selector will open a patch in your editor; after the editor exits, the
 349result is applied to the index. You are free to make arbitrary changes
 350to the patch, but note that some changes may have confusing results, or
 351even result in a patch that cannot be applied.  If you want to abort the
 352operation entirely (i.e., stage nothing new in the index), simply delete
 353all lines of the patch. The list below describes some common things you
 354may see in a patch, and which editing operations make sense on them.
 355
 356--
 357added content::
 358
 359Added content is represented by lines beginning with "{plus}". You can
 360prevent staging any addition lines by deleting them.
 361
 362removed content::
 363
 364Removed content is represented by lines beginning with "-". You can
 365prevent staging their removal by converting the "-" to a " " (space).
 366
 367modified content::
 368
 369Modified content is represented by "-" lines (removing the old content)
 370followed by "{plus}" lines (adding the replacement content). You can
 371prevent staging the modification by converting "-" lines to " ", and
 372removing "{plus}" lines. Beware that modifying only half of the pair is
 373likely to introduce confusing changes to the index.
 374--
 375
 376There are also more complex operations that can be performed. But beware
 377that because the patch is applied only to the index and not the working
 378tree, the working tree will appear to "undo" the change in the index.
 379For example, introducing a new line into the index that is in neither
 380the HEAD nor the working tree will stage the new line for commit, but
 381the line will appear to be reverted in the working tree.
 382
 383Avoid using these constructs, or do so with extreme caution.
 384
 385--
 386removing untouched content::
 387
 388Content which does not differ between the index and working tree may be
 389shown on context lines, beginning with a " " (space).  You can stage
 390context lines for removal by converting the space to a "-". The
 391resulting working tree file will appear to re-add the content.
 392
 393modifying existing content::
 394
 395One can also modify context lines by staging them for removal (by
 396converting " " to "-") and adding a "{plus}" line with the new content.
 397Similarly, one can modify "{plus}" lines for existing additions or
 398modifications. In all cases, the new modification will appear reverted
 399in the working tree.
 400
 401new content::
 402
 403You may also add new content that does not exist in the patch; simply
 404add new lines, each starting with "{plus}". The addition will appear
 405reverted in the working tree.
 406--
 407
 408There are also several operations which should be avoided entirely, as
 409they will make the patch impossible to apply:
 410
 411* adding context (" ") or removal ("-") lines
 412* deleting context or removal lines
 413* modifying the contents of context or removal lines
 414
 415SEE ALSO
 416--------
 417linkgit:git-status[1]
 418linkgit:git-rm[1]
 419linkgit:git-reset[1]
 420linkgit:git-mv[1]
 421linkgit:git-commit[1]
 422linkgit:git-update-index[1]
 423
 424GIT
 425---
 426Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite