DESCRIPTION
-----------
-This command adds the current content of new or modified files to the
-index, thus staging that content for inclusion in the next commit.
+This command updates the index using the current content found in
+the working tree, to prepare the content staged for the next commit.
+It typically adds the current content of existing paths as a whole,
+but with some options it can also be used to add content with
+only part of the changes made to the working tree files applied, or
+remove paths that do not exist in the working tree anymore.
The "index" holds a snapshot of the content of the working tree, and it
is this snapshot that is taken as the contents of the next commit. Thus
-u::
--update::
- Update only files that git already knows about, staging modified
- content for commit and marking deleted files for removal. This
- is similar
- to what "git commit -a" does in preparation for making a commit,
- except that the update is limited to paths specified on the
- command line. If no paths are specified, all tracked files in the
- current directory and its subdirectories are updated.
+ Only match <filepattern> against already tracked files in
+ the index rather than the working tree. That means that it
+ will never stage new files, but that it will stage modified
+ new contents of tracked files and that it will remove files
+ from the index if the corresponding files in the working tree
+ have been removed.
++
+If no <filepattern> is given, default to "."; in other words,
+update all tracked files in the current directory and its
+subdirectories.
-A::
--all::
- Update files that git already knows about (same as '\--update')
- and add all untracked files that are not ignored by '.gitignore'
- mechanism.
-
+ Like `-u`, but match <filepattern> against files in the
+ working tree in addition to the index. That means that it
+ will find new files as well as staging modified content and
+ removing files that are no longer in the working tree.
-N::
--intent-to-add::