DESCRIPTION
-----------
-Use 'git commit' when you want to record your changes into the repository
-along with a log message describing what the commit is about. All changes
-to be committed must be explicitly identified using one of the following
-methods:
+Use 'git commit' to store the current contents of the index in a new
+commit along with a log message describing the changes you have made.
+
+The content to be added can be specified in several ways:
1. by using gitlink:git-add[1] to incrementally "add" changes to the
- next commit before using the 'commit' command (Note: even modified
+ index before using the 'commit' command (Note: even modified
files must be "added");
-2. by using gitlink:git-rm[1] to identify content removal for the next
- commit, again before using the 'commit' command;
+2. by using gitlink:git-rm[1] to remove files from the working tree
+ and the index, again before using the 'commit' command;
-3. by directly listing files containing changes to be committed as arguments
- to the 'commit' command, in which cases only those files alone will be
- considered for the commit;
+3. by listing files as arguments to the 'commit' command, in which
+ case the commit will ignore changes staged in the index, and instead
+ record the current content of the listed files;
-4. by using the -a switch with the 'commit' command to automatically "add"
- changes from all known files i.e. files that have already been committed
- before, and to automatically "rm" files that have been
- removed from the working tree, and perform the actual commit.
+4. by using the -a switch with the 'commit' command to automatically
+ "add" changes from all known files (i.e. all files that are already
+ listed in the index) and to automatically "rm" files in the index
+ that have been removed from the working tree, and then perform the
+ actual commit;
5. by using the --interactive switch with the 'commit' command to decide one
by one which files should be part of the commit, before finalizing the
-m <msg>|--message=<msg>::
Use the given <msg> as the commit message.
+-t <file>|--template=<file>::
+ Use the contents of the given file as the initial version
+ of the commit message. The editor is invoked and you can
+ make subsequent changes. If a message is specified using
+ the `-m` or `-F` options, this option has no effect. This
+ overrides the `commit.template` configuration variable.
+
-s|--signoff::
Add Signed-off-by line at the end of the commit message.
--------
When recording your own work, the contents of modified files in
your working tree are temporarily stored to a staging area
-called the "index" with gitlink:git-add[1]. Removal
-of a file is staged with gitlink:git-rm[1]. After building the
-state to be committed incrementally with these commands, `git
-commit` (without any pathname parameter) is used to record what
+called the "index" with gitlink:git-add[1]. A file can be
+reverted back, only in the index but not in the working tree,
+to that of the last commit with `git-reset HEAD -- <file>`,
+which effectively reverts `git-add` and prevents the changes to
+this file from participating in the next commit. After building
+the state to be committed incrementally with these commands,
+`git commit` (without any pathname parameter) is used to record what
has been staged so far. This is the most basic form of the
command. An example:
include::i18n.txt[]
-ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
----------------------
-The command specified by either the VISUAL or EDITOR environment
-variables is used to edit the commit log message.
+ENVIRONMENT AND CONFIGURATION VARIABLES
+---------------------------------------
+The editor used to edit the commit log message will be chosen from the
+GIT_EDITOR environment variable, the core.editor configuration variable, the
+VISUAL environment variable, or the EDITOR environment variable (in that
+order).
HOOKS
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