NAME
----
-git-add - Add file contents to the changeset to be committed next
+git-add - Add file contents to the index
SYNOPSIS
--------
-'git-add' [-n] [-v] [-f] [--interactive | -i] [-u] [--] <file>...
+'git-add' [-n] [-v] [-f] [--interactive | -i] [-u] [--refresh] [--] <file>...
DESCRIPTION
-----------
-All the changed file contents to be committed together in a single set
-of changes must be "added" with the 'add' command before using the
-'commit' command. This is not only for adding new files. Even modified
-files must be added to the set of changes about to be committed.
-
-This command can be performed multiple times before a commit. The added
-content corresponds to the state of specified file(s) at the time the
-'add' command is used. This means the 'commit' command will not consider
-subsequent changes to already added content if it is not added again before
-the commit.
-
-The 'git status' command can be used to obtain a summary of what is included
-for the next commit.
-
-This command can be used to add ignored files with `-f` (force)
-option, but they have to be
-explicitly and exactly specified from the command line. File globbing
-and recursive behaviour do not add ignored files.
+This command adds the current content of new or modified files to the
+index, thus staging that content for inclusion in the next commit.
+
+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
+after making any changes to the working directory, and before running
+the commit command, you must use the 'add' command to add any new or
+modified files to the index.
+
+This command can be performed multiple times before a commit. It only
+adds the content of the specified file(s) at the time the add command is
+run; if you want subsequent changes included in the next commit, then
+you must run 'git add' again to add the new content to the index.
+
+The 'git status' command can be used to obtain a summary of which
+files have changes that are staged for the next commit.
+
+The 'git add' command will not add ignored files by default. If any
+ignored files were explicitly specified on the command line, 'git add'
+will fail with a list of ignored files. Ignored files reached by
+directory recursion or filename globbing will be silently ignored.
+The 'add' command can be used to add ignored files with the `-f`
+(force) option.
Please see gitlink:git-commit[1] for alternative ways to add content to a
commit.
the index.
-u::
- Update all files that git already knows about. This is what
- "git commit -a" does in preparation for making a commit.
+ Update only files that git already knows about. 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 are
+ updated.
+
+\--refresh::
+ Don't add the file(s), but only refresh their stat()
+ information in the index.
\--::
This option can be used to separate command-line options from
for command-line options).
+Configuration
+-------------
+
+The optional configuration variable 'core.excludesfile' indicates a path to a
+file containing patterns of file names to exclude from git-add, similar to
+$GIT_DIR/info/exclude. Patterns in the exclude file are used in addition to
+those in info/exclude. See link:repository-layout.html[repository layout].
+
+
EXAMPLES
--------
git-add Documentation/\\*.txt::
GIT
---
Part of the gitlink:git[7] suite
-