Documentation / git-update-index.txton commit GIT 0.99.9m aka 1.0rc5 (a957207)
   1git-update-index(1)
   2===================
   3
   4NAME
   5----
   6git-update-index - Modifies the index or directory cache
   7
   8
   9SYNOPSIS
  10--------
  11'git-update-index'
  12             [--add] [--remove | --force-remove] [--replace] 
  13             [--refresh [-q] [--unmerged] [--ignore-missing]]
  14             [--cacheinfo <mode> <object> <file>]\*
  15             [--chmod=(+|-)x]
  16             [--info-only] [--index-info]
  17             [-z] [--stdin]
  18             [--verbose]
  19             [--] [<file>]\*
  20
  21DESCRIPTION
  22-----------
  23Modifies the index or directory cache. Each file mentioned is updated
  24into the index and any 'unmerged' or 'needs updating' state is
  25cleared.
  26
  27The way "git-update-index" handles files it is told about can be modified
  28using the various options:
  29
  30OPTIONS
  31-------
  32--add::
  33        If a specified file isn't in the index already then it's
  34        added.
  35        Default behaviour is to ignore new files.
  36
  37--remove::
  38        If a specified file is in the index but is missing then it's
  39        removed.
  40        Default behaviour is to ignore removed file.
  41
  42--refresh::
  43        Looks at the current index and checks to see if merges or
  44        updates are needed by checking stat() information.
  45
  46-q::
  47        Quiet.  If --refresh finds that the index needs an update, the
  48        default behavior is to error out.  This option makes
  49        git-update-index continue anyway.
  50
  51--unmerged::
  52        If --refresh finds unmerged changes in the index, the default
  53        behavior is to error out.  This option makes git-update-index 
  54        continue anyway.
  55
  56--ignore-missing::
  57        Ignores missing files during a --refresh
  58
  59--cacheinfo <mode> <object> <path>::
  60        Directly insert the specified info into the index.
  61        
  62--index-info::
  63        Read index information from stdin.
  64
  65--chmod=(+|-)x::
  66        Set the execute permissions on the updated files.        
  67
  68--info-only::
  69        Do not create objects in the object database for all
  70        <file> arguments that follow this flag; just insert
  71        their object IDs into the index.
  72
  73--force-remove::
  74        Remove the file from the index even when the working directory
  75        still has such a file. (Implies --remove.)
  76
  77--replace::
  78        By default, when a file `path` exists in the index,
  79        git-update-index refuses an attempt to add `path/file`.
  80        Similarly if a file `path/file` exists, a file `path`
  81        cannot be added.  With --replace flag, existing entries
  82        that conflicts with the entry being added are
  83        automatically removed with warning messages.
  84
  85--stdin::
  86        Instead of taking list of paths from the command line,
  87        read list of paths from the standard input.  Paths are
  88        separated by LF (i.e. one path per line) by default.
  89
  90--verbose::
  91        Report what is being added and removed from index.
  92
  93-z::
  94        Only meaningful with `--stdin`; paths are separated with
  95        NUL character instead of LF.
  96
  97--::
  98        Do not interpret any more arguments as options.
  99
 100<file>::
 101        Files to act on.
 102        Note that files beginning with '.' are discarded. This includes
 103        `./file` and `dir/./file`. If you don't want this, then use     
 104        cleaner names.
 105        The same applies to directories ending '/' and paths with '//'
 106
 107Using --refresh
 108---------------
 109'--refresh' does not calculate a new sha1 file or bring the index
 110up-to-date for mode/content changes. But what it *does* do is to
 111"re-match" the stat information of a file with the index, so that you
 112can refresh the index for a file that hasn't been changed but where
 113the stat entry is out of date.
 114
 115For example, you'd want to do this after doing a "git-read-tree", to link
 116up the stat index details with the proper files.
 117
 118Using --cacheinfo or --info-only
 119--------------------------------
 120'--cacheinfo' is used to register a file that is not in the
 121current working directory.  This is useful for minimum-checkout
 122merging.
 123
 124To pretend you have a file with mode and sha1 at path, say:
 125
 126----------------
 127$ git-update-index --cacheinfo mode sha1 path
 128----------------
 129
 130'--info-only' is used to register files without placing them in the object
 131database.  This is useful for status-only repositories.
 132
 133Both '--cacheinfo' and '--info-only' behave similarly: the index is updated
 134but the object database isn't.  '--cacheinfo' is useful when the object is
 135in the database but the file isn't available locally.  '--info-only' is
 136useful when the file is available, but you do not wish to update the
 137object database.
 138
 139
 140Using --index-info
 141------------------
 142
 143`--index-info` is a more powerful mechanism that lets you feed
 144multiple entry definitions from the standard input, and designed
 145specifically for scripts.  It can take inputs of three formats:
 146
 147    . mode         SP sha1          TAB path
 148+
 149The first format is what "git-apply --index-info"
 150reports, and used to reconstruct a partial tree
 151that is used for phony merge base tree when falling
 152back on 3-way merge.
 153
 154    . mode SP type SP sha1          TAB path
 155+
 156The second format is to stuff git-ls-tree output
 157into the index file.
 158
 159    . mode         SP sha1 SP stage TAB path
 160+
 161This format is to put higher order stages into the
 162index file and matches git-ls-files --stage output.
 163
 164To place a higher stage entry to the index, the path should
 165first be removed by feeding a mode=0 entry for the path, and
 166then feeding necessary input lines in the third format.
 167
 168For example, starting with this index:
 169
 170------------
 171$ git ls-files -s
 172100644 8a1218a1024a212bb3db30becd860315f9f3ac52 0       frotz
 173------------
 174
 175you can feed the following input to `--index-info`:
 176
 177------------
 178$ git update-index --index-info
 1790 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000      frotz
 180100644 8a1218a1024a212bb3db30becd860315f9f3ac52 1       frotz
 181100755 8a1218a1024a212bb3db30becd860315f9f3ac52 2       frotz
 182------------
 183
 184The first line of the input feeds 0 as the mode to remove the
 185path; the SHA1 does not matter as long as it is well formatted.
 186Then the second and third line feeds stage 1 and stage 2 entries
 187for that path.  After the above, we would end up with this:
 188
 189------------
 190$ git ls-files -s
 191100644 8a1218a1024a212bb3db30becd860315f9f3ac52 1       frotz
 192100755 8a1218a1024a212bb3db30becd860315f9f3ac52 2       frotz
 193------------
 194
 195
 196Examples
 197--------
 198To update and refresh only the files already checked out:
 199
 200----------------
 201$ git-checkout-index -n -f -a && git-update-index --ignore-missing --refresh
 202----------------
 203
 204
 205Configuration
 206-------------
 207
 208The command honors `core.filemode` configuration variable.  If
 209your repository is on an filesystem whose executable bits are
 210unreliable, this should be set to 'false' (see gitlink:git-repo-config[1]).
 211This causes the command to ignore differences in file modes recorded
 212in the index and the file mode on the filesystem if they differ only on
 213executable bit.   On such an unfortunate filesystem, you may
 214need to use `git-update-index --chmod=`.
 215
 216
 217See Also
 218--------
 219gitlink:git-repo-config[1]
 220
 221
 222Author
 223------
 224Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
 225
 226Documentation
 227--------------
 228Documentation by David Greaves, Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.
 229
 230GIT
 231---
 232Part of the gitlink:git[7] suite
 233