path: root/Documentation/git-add.txt

git-add(1)
==========

NAME
----
git-add - Add file contents to the index

SYNOPSIS
--------
[verse]
'git-add' [-n] [-v] [--force | -f] [--interactive | -i] [--patch | -p]
	  [--update | -u] [--refresh] [--ignore-errors] [--]
	  <filepattern>...

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.

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 performed by Git (quote your
globs before the shell) will be silently ignored.  The 'add' command can
be used to add ignored files with the `-f` (force) option.

Please see linkgit:git-commit[1] for alternative ways to add content to a
commit.


OPTIONS
-------
<filepattern>...::
	Files to add content from.  Fileglobs (e.g. `*.c`) can
	be given to add all matching files.  Also a
	leading directory name (e.g. `dir` to add `dir/file1`
	and `dir/file2`) can be given to add all files in the
	directory, recursively.

-n::
--dry-run::
        Don't actually add the file(s), just show if they exist.

-v::
--verbose::
        Be verbose.

-f::
--force::
	Allow adding otherwise ignored files.

-i::
--interactive::
	Add modified contents in the working tree interactively to
	the index. Optional path arguments may be supplied to limit
	operation to a subset of the working tree. See ``Interactive
	mode'' for details.

-p::
--patch::
	Similar to Interactive mode but the initial command loop is
	bypassed and the 'patch' subcommand is invoked using each of
	the specified filepatterns before exiting.

-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.

--refresh::
	Don't add the file(s), but only refresh their stat()
	information in the index.

--ignore-errors::
	If some files could not be added because of errors indexing
	them, do not abort the operation, but continue adding the
	others. The command shall still exit with non-zero status.

\--::
	This option can be used to separate command-line options from
	the list of files, (useful when filenames might be mistaken
	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 linkgit:gitrepository-layout[5][repository layout].


EXAMPLES
--------

* Adds content from all `\*.txt` files under `Documentation` directory
and its subdirectories:
+
------------
$ git add Documentation/\\*.txt
------------
+
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.

* Considers adding content from all git-*.sh scripts:
+
------------
$ git add git-*.sh
------------
+
Because this example lets shell expand the asterisk (i.e. you are
listing the files explicitly), it does not consider
`subdir/git-foo.sh`.

Interactive mode
----------------
When the command enters the interactive mode, it shows the
output of the 'status' subcommand, and then goes into its
interactive command loop.

The command loop shows the list of subcommands available, and
gives a prompt "What now> ".  In general, when the prompt ends
with a single '>', you can pick only one of the choices given
and type return, like this:

------------
    *** Commands ***
      1: status       2: update       3: revert       4: add untracked
      5: patch        6: diff         7: quit         8: help
    What now> 1
------------

You also could say "s" or "sta" or "status" above as long as the
choice is unique.

The main command loop has 6 subcommands (plus help and quit).

status::

   This shows the change between HEAD and index (i.e. what will be
   committed if you say "git commit"), and between index and
   working tree files (i.e. what you could stage further before
   "git commit" using "git-add") for each path.  A sample output
   looks like this:
+
------------
              staged     unstaged path
     1:       binary      nothing foo.png
     2:     +403/-35        +1/-1 git-add--interactive.perl
------------
+
It shows that foo.png has differences from HEAD (but that is
binary so line count cannot be shown) and there is no
difference between indexed copy and the working tree
version (if the working tree version were also different,
'binary' would have been shown in place of 'nothing').  The
other file, git-add--interactive.perl, has 403 lines added
and 35 lines deleted if you commit what is in the index, but
working tree file has further modifications (one addition and
one deletion).

update::

   This shows the status information and gives prompt
   "Update>>".  When the prompt ends with double '>>', you can
   make more than one selection, concatenated with whitespace or
   comma.  Also you can say ranges.  E.g. "2-5 7,9" to choose
   2,3,4,5,7,9 from the list.  If the second number in a range is
   omitted, all remaining patches are taken.  E.g. "7-" to choose
   7,8,9 from the list.  You can say '*' to choose everything.
+
What you chose are then highlighted with '*',
like this:
+
------------
           staged     unstaged path
  1:       binary      nothing foo.png
* 2:     +403/-35        +1/-1 git-add--interactive.perl
------------
+
To remove selection, prefix the input with `-`
like this:
+
------------
Update>> -2
------------
+
After making the selection, answer with an empty line to stage the
contents of working tree files for selected paths in the index.

revert::

  This has a very similar UI to 'update', and the staged
  information for selected paths are reverted to that of the
  HEAD version.  Reverting new paths makes them untracked.

add untracked::

  This has a very similar UI to 'update' and
  'revert', and lets you add untracked paths to the index.

patch::

  This lets you choose one path out of 'status' like selection.
  After choosing the path, it presents diff between the index
  and the working tree file and asks you if you want to stage
  the change of each hunk.  You can say:

       y - stage this hunk
       n - do not stage this hunk
       a - stage this and all the remaining hunks in the file
       d - do not stage this hunk nor any of the remaining hunks in the file
       j - leave this hunk undecided, see next undecided hunk
       J - leave this hunk undecided, see next hunk
       k - leave this hunk undecided, see previous undecided hunk
       K - leave this hunk undecided, see previous hunk
       s - split the current hunk into smaller hunks
       ? - print help
+
After deciding the fate for all hunks, if there is any hunk
that was chosen, the index is updated with the selected hunks.

diff::

  This lets you review what will be committed (i.e. between
  HEAD and index).

Bugs
----
The interactive mode does not work with files whose names contain
characters that need C-quoting.  `core.quotepath` configuration can be
used to work this limitation around to some degree, but backslash,
double-quote and control characters will still have problems.

SEE ALSO
--------
linkgit:git-status[1]
linkgit:git-rm[1]
linkgit:git-reset[1]
linkgit:git-mv[1]
linkgit:git-commit[1]
linkgit:git-update-index[1]

Author
------
Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>

Documentation
--------------
Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.

GIT
---
Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite