NAME
----
-git-add - Add files to the cache.
+git-add - Add files to the index file.
SYNOPSIS
--------
-'git-add' <file>...
+'git-add' [-n] [-v] <file>...
DESCRIPTION
-----------
-A simple wrapper for git-update-index to add files to the cache for people used
-to do "cvs add".
+A simple wrapper for git-update-index to add files to the index,
+for people used to do "cvs add".
+
OPTIONS
-------
<file>...::
- Files to add to the cache.
+ Files to add to the index.
+
+-n::
+ Don't actually add the file(s), just show if they exist.
+
+-v::
+ Be verbose.
+
+
+DISCUSSION
+----------
+
+The list of <file> given to the command is fed to `git-ls-files`
+command to list files that are not registered in the index and
+are not ignored/excluded by `$GIT_DIR/info/exclude` file or
+`.gitignore` file in each directory. This means two things:
+
+. You can put the name of a directory on the command line, and
+ the command will add all files in it and its subdirectories;
+
+. Giving the name of a file that is already in index does not
+ run `git-update-index` on that path.
+
+
+EXAMPLES
+--------
+git-add Documentation/\\*.txt::
+
+ Adds all `\*.txt` files that are not in the index under
+ `Documentation` directory and its subdirectories.
++
+Note that the asterisk `\*` is quoted from the shell in this
+example; this lets the command to include the files from
+subdirectories of `Documentation/` directory.
+
+git-add git-*.sh::
+
+ Adds all git-*.sh scripts that are not in the index.
+ Because this example lets shell expand the asterisk
+ (i.e. you are listing the files explicitly), it does not
+ add `subdir/git-foo.sh` to the index.
+
Author
------