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 [--really-refresh] [--unresolve] [--again | -g] 19 [--info-only] [--index-info] 20 [-z] [--stdin] 21 [--verbose] 22 [--] [<file>]\* 23 24DESCRIPTION 25----------- 26Modifies the index or directory cache. Each file mentioned is updated 27into the index and any 'unmerged' or 'needs updating' state is 28cleared. 29 30The way "git-update-index" handles files it is told about can be modified 31using the various options: 32 33OPTIONS 34------- 35--add:: 36 If a specified file isn't in the index already then it's 37 added. 38 Default behaviour is to ignore new files. 39 40--remove:: 41 If a specified file is in the index but is missing then it's 42 removed. 43 Default behavior is to ignore removed file. 44 45--refresh:: 46 Looks at the current index and checks to see if merges or 47 updates are needed by checking stat() information. 48 49-q:: 50 Quiet. If --refresh finds that the index needs an update, the 51 default behavior is to error out. This option makes 52 git-update-index continue anyway. 53 54--unmerged:: 55 If --refresh finds unmerged changes in the index, the default 56 behavior is to error out. This option makes git-update-index 57 continue anyway. 58 59--ignore-missing:: 60 Ignores missing files during a --refresh 61 62--cacheinfo <mode> <object> <path>:: 63 Directly insert the specified info into the index. 64 65--index-info:: 66 Read index information from stdin. 67 68--chmod=(+|-)x:: 69 Set the execute permissions on the updated files. 70 71--assume-unchanged, --no-assume-unchanged:: 72 When these flags are specified, the object name recorded 73 for the paths are not updated. Instead, these options 74 sets and unsets the "assume unchanged" bit for the 75 paths. When the "assume unchanged" bit is on, git stops 76 checking the working tree files for possible 77 modifications, so you need to manually unset the bit to 78 tell git when you change the working tree file. This is 79 sometimes helpful when working with a big project on a 80 filesystem that has very slow lstat(2) system call 81 (e.g. cifs). 82 83--again, -g:: 84 Runs `git-update-index` itself on the paths whose index 85 entries are different from those from the `HEAD` commit. 86 87--unresolve:: 88 Restores the 'unmerged' or 'needs updating' state of a 89 file during a merge if it was cleared by accident. 90 91--info-only:: 92 Do not create objects in the object database for all 93 <file> arguments that follow this flag; just insert 94 their object IDs into the index. 95 96--force-remove:: 97 Remove the file from the index even when the working directory 98 still has such a file. (Implies --remove.) 99 100--replace:: 101 By default, when a file `path` exists in the index, 102 git-update-index refuses an attempt to add `path/file`. 103 Similarly if a file `path/file` exists, a file `path` 104 cannot be added. With --replace flag, existing entries 105 that conflicts with the entry being added are 106 automatically removed with warning messages. 107 108--stdin:: 109 Instead of taking list of paths from the command line, 110 read list of paths from the standard input. Paths are 111 separated by LF (i.e. one path per line) by default. 112 113--verbose:: 114 Report what is being added and removed from index. 115 116-z:: 117 Only meaningful with `--stdin`; paths are separated with 118 NUL character instead of LF. 119 120\--:: 121 Do not interpret any more arguments as options. 122 123<file>:: 124 Files to act on. 125 Note that files beginning with '.' are discarded. This includes 126 `./file` and `dir/./file`. If you don't want this, then use 127 cleaner names. 128 The same applies to directories ending '/' and paths with '//' 129 130Using --refresh 131--------------- 132'--refresh' does not calculate a new sha1 file or bring the index 133up-to-date for mode/content changes. But what it *does* do is to 134"re-match" the stat information of a file with the index, so that you 135can refresh the index for a file that hasn't been changed but where 136the stat entry is out of date. 137 138For example, you'd want to do this after doing a "git-read-tree", to link 139up the stat index details with the proper files. 140 141Using --cacheinfo or --info-only 142-------------------------------- 143'--cacheinfo' is used to register a file that is not in the 144current working directory. This is useful for minimum-checkout 145merging. 146 147To pretend you have a file with mode and sha1 at path, say: 148 149---------------- 150$ git-update-index --cacheinfo mode sha1 path 151---------------- 152 153'--info-only' is used to register files without placing them in the object 154database. This is useful for status-only repositories. 155 156Both '--cacheinfo' and '--info-only' behave similarly: the index is updated 157but the object database isn't. '--cacheinfo' is useful when the object is 158in the database but the file isn't available locally. '--info-only' is 159useful when the file is available, but you do not wish to update the 160object database. 161 162 163Using --index-info 164------------------ 165 166`--index-info` is a more powerful mechanism that lets you feed 167multiple entry definitions from the standard input, and designed 168specifically for scripts. It can take inputs of three formats: 169 170 . mode SP sha1 TAB path 171+ 172The first format is what "git-apply --index-info" 173reports, and used to reconstruct a partial tree 174that is used for phony merge base tree when falling 175back on 3-way merge. 176 177 . mode SP type SP sha1 TAB path 178+ 179The second format is to stuff git-ls-tree output 180into the index file. 181 182 . mode SP sha1 SP stage TAB path 183+ 184This format is to put higher order stages into the 185index file and matches git-ls-files --stage output. 186 187To place a higher stage entry to the index, the path should 188first be removed by feeding a mode=0 entry for the path, and 189then feeding necessary input lines in the third format. 190 191For example, starting with this index: 192 193------------ 194$ git ls-files -s 195100644 8a1218a1024a212bb3db30becd860315f9f3ac52 0 frotz 196------------ 197 198you can feed the following input to `--index-info`: 199 200------------ 201$ git update-index --index-info 2020 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000 frotz 203100644 8a1218a1024a212bb3db30becd860315f9f3ac52 1 frotz 204100755 8a1218a1024a212bb3db30becd860315f9f3ac52 2 frotz 205------------ 206 207The first line of the input feeds 0 as the mode to remove the 208path; the SHA1 does not matter as long as it is well formatted. 209Then the second and third line feeds stage 1 and stage 2 entries 210for that path. After the above, we would end up with this: 211 212------------ 213$ git ls-files -s 214100644 8a1218a1024a212bb3db30becd860315f9f3ac52 1 frotz 215100755 8a1218a1024a212bb3db30becd860315f9f3ac52 2 frotz 216------------ 217 218 219Using ``assume unchanged'' bit 220------------------------------ 221 222Many operations in git depend on your filesystem to have an 223efficient `lstat(2)` implementation, so that `st_mtime` 224information for working tree files can be cheaply checked to see 225if the file contents have changed from the version recorded in 226the index file. Unfortunately, some filesystems have 227inefficient `lstat(2)`. If your filesystem is one of them, you 228can set "assume unchanged" bit to paths you have not changed to 229cause git not to do this check. Note that setting this bit on a 230path does not mean git will check the contents of the file to 231see if it has changed -- it makes git to omit any checking and 232assume it has *not* changed. When you make changes to working 233tree files, you have to explicitly tell git about it by dropping 234"assume unchanged" bit, either before or after you modify them. 235 236In order to set "assume unchanged" bit, use `--assume-unchanged` 237option. To unset, use `--no-assume-unchanged`. 238 239The command looks at `core.ignorestat` configuration variable. When 240this is true, paths updated with `git-update-index paths...` and 241paths updated with other git commands that update both index and 242working tree (e.g. `git-apply --index`, `git-checkout-index -u`, 243and `git-read-tree -u`) are automatically marked as "assume 244unchanged". Note that "assume unchanged" bit is *not* set if 245`git-update-index --refresh` finds the working tree file matches 246the index (use `git-update-index --really-refresh` if you want 247to mark them as "assume unchanged"). 248 249 250Examples 251-------- 252To update and refresh only the files already checked out: 253 254---------------- 255$ git-checkout-index -n -f -a && git-update-index --ignore-missing --refresh 256---------------- 257 258On an inefficient filesystem with `core.ignorestat` set:: 259+ 260------------ 261$ git update-index --really-refresh <1> 262$ git update-index --no-assume-unchanged foo.c <2> 263$ git diff --name-only <3> 264$ edit foo.c 265$ git diff --name-only <4> 266M foo.c 267$ git update-index foo.c <5> 268$ git diff --name-only <6> 269$ edit foo.c 270$ git diff --name-only <7> 271$ git update-index --no-assume-unchanged foo.c <8> 272$ git diff --name-only <9> 273M foo.c 274------------ 275+ 276<1> forces lstat(2) to set "assume unchanged" bits for paths that match index. 277<2> mark the path to be edited. 278<3> this does lstat(2) and finds index matches the path. 279<4> this does lstat(2) and finds index does *not* match the path. 280<5> registering the new version to index sets "assume unchanged" bit. 281<6> and it is assumed unchanged. 282<7> even after you edit it. 283<8> you can tell about the change after the fact. 284<9> now it checks with lstat(2) and finds it has been changed. 285 286 287Configuration 288------------- 289 290The command honors `core.filemode` configuration variable. If 291your repository is on an filesystem whose executable bits are 292unreliable, this should be set to 'false' (see gitlink:git-repo-config[1]). 293This causes the command to ignore differences in file modes recorded 294in the index and the file mode on the filesystem if they differ only on 295executable bit. On such an unfortunate filesystem, you may 296need to use `git-update-index --chmod=`. 297 298The command looks at `core.ignorestat` configuration variable. See 299'Using "assume unchanged" bit' section above. 300 301 302See Also 303-------- 304gitlink:git-repo-config[1] 305 306 307Author 308------ 309Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org> 310 311Documentation 312-------------- 313Documentation by David Greaves, Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>. 314 315GIT 316--- 317Part of the gitlink:git[7] suite 318