git-add(1) Git Manual git-add(1)
NAME
git-add - Add file contents to the index
SYNOPSIS
git add [--verbose | -v] [--dry-run | -n] [--force | -f] [--interactive | -i] [--patch | -p]
[--edit | -e] [--[no-]all | --[no-]ignore-removal | [--update | -u]] [--sparse]
[--intent-to-add | -N] [--refresh] [--ignore-errors] [--ignore-missing] [--renormalize]
[--chmod=(+|-)x] [--pathspec-from-file=<file> [--pathspec-file-nul]]
[--] [<pathspec>...]
DESCRIPTION
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
after making any changes to the working tree, 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 git add command can be used to
add ignored files with the -f (force) option.
Please see git-commit(1) for alternative ways to add content to a commit.
OPTIONS
<pathspec>...
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 update the index to match
the current state of the directory as a whole (e.g. specifying dir
will record not just a file dir/file1 modified in the working tree, a
file dir/file2 added to the working tree, but also a file dir/file3
removed from the working tree). Note that older versions of Git used
to ignore removed files; use --no-all option if you want to add
modified or new files but ignore removed ones.
For more details about the <pathspec> syntax, see the pathspec entry
in gitglossary(7).
-n, --dry-run
Don't actually add the file(s), just show if they exist and/or will
be ignored.
-v, --verbose
Be verbose.
-f, --force
Allow adding otherwise ignored files.
--sparse
Allow updating index entries outside of the sparse-checkout cone.
Normally, git add refuses to update index entries whose paths do not
fit within the sparse-checkout cone, since those files might be
removed from the working tree without warning. See git-sparse-
checkout(1) for more details.
-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
Interactively choose hunks of patch between the index and the work
tree and add them to the index. This gives the user a chance to
review the difference before adding modified contents to the index.
This effectively runs add --interactive, but bypasses the initial
command menu and directly jumps to the patch subcommand. See
"Interactive mode" for details.
-e, --edit
Open the diff vs. the index in an editor and let the user edit it.
After the editor was closed, adjust the hunk headers and apply the
patch to the index.
The intent of this option is to pick and choose lines of the patch to
apply, or even to modify the contents of lines to be staged. This can
be quicker and more flexible than using the interactive hunk
selector. However, it is easy to confuse oneself and create a patch
that does not apply to the index. See EDITING PATCHES below.
-u, --update
Update the index just where it already has an entry matching
<pathspec>. This removes as well as modifies index entries to match
the working tree, but adds no new files.
If no <pathspec> is given when -u option is used, all tracked files
in the entire working tree are updated (old versions of Git used to
limit the update to the current directory and its subdirectories).
-A, --all, --no-ignore-removal
Update the index not only where the working tree has a file matching
<pathspec> but also where the index already has an entry. This adds,
modifies, and removes index entries to match the working tree.
If no <pathspec> is given when -A option is used, all files in the
entire working tree are updated (old versions of Git used to limit
the update to the current directory and its subdirectories).
--no-all, --ignore-removal
Update the index by adding new files that are unknown to the index
and files modified in the working tree, but ignore files that have
been removed from the working tree. This option is a no-op when no
<pathspec> is used.
This option is primarily to help users who are used to older versions
of Git, whose "git add <pathspec>..." was a synonym for "git add
--no-all <pathspec>...", i.e. ignored removed files.
-N, --intent-to-add
Record only the fact that the path will be added later. An entry for
the path is placed in the index with no content. This is useful for,
among other things, showing the unstaged content of such files with
git diff and committing them with git commit -a.
--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. The configuration variable
add.ignoreErrors can be set to true to make this the default
behaviour.
--ignore-missing
This option can only be used together with --dry-run. By using this
option the user can check if any of the given files would be ignored,
no matter if they are already present in the work tree or not.
--no-warn-embedded-repo
By default, git add will warn when adding an embedded repository to
the index without using git submodule add to create an entry in
.gitmodules. This option will suppress the warning (e.g., if you are
manually performing operations on submodules).
--renormalize
Apply the "clean" process freshly to all tracked files to forcibly
add them again to the index. This is useful after changing
core.autocrlf configuration or the text attribute in order to correct
files added with wrong CRLF/LF line endings. This option implies -u.
Lone CR characters are untouched, thus while a CRLF cleans to LF, a
CRCRLF sequence is only partially cleaned to CRLF.
--chmod=(+|-)x
Override the executable bit of the added files. The executable bit is
only changed in the index, the files on disk are left unchanged.
--pathspec-from-file=<file>
Pathspec is passed in <file> instead of commandline args. If <file>
is exactly - then standard input is used. Pathspec elements are
separated by LF or CR/LF. Pathspec elements can be quoted as
explained for the configuration variable core.quotePath (see git-
config(1)). See also --pathspec-file-nul and global
--literal-pathspecs.
--pathspec-file-nul
Only meaningful with --pathspec-from-file. Pathspec elements are
separated with NUL character and all other characters are taken
literally (including newlines and quotes).
--
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).
EXAMPLES
o 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 include the files from subdirectories of
Documentation/ directory.
o Considers adding content from all git-*.sh scripts:
$ git add git-*.sh
Because this example lets the 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 add-interactive.c
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, add-interactive.c, 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 issues an "Update>>" prompt.
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 add-interactive.c
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 a status like selection. After
choosing the path, it presents the diff between the index and the
working tree file and asks you if you want to stage the change of
each hunk. You can select one of the following options and type
return:
y - stage this hunk
n - do not stage this hunk
q - quit; do not stage this hunk or any of the remaining ones
a - stage this hunk and all later hunks in the file
d - do not stage this hunk or any of the later hunks in the file
g - select a hunk to go to
/ - search for a hunk matching the given regex
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
e - manually edit the current hunk
? - 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.
You can omit having to type return here, by setting the configuration
variable interactive.singleKey to true.
diff
This lets you review what will be committed (i.e. between HEAD and
index).
EDITING PATCHES
Invoking git add -e or selecting e from the interactive hunk selector
will open a patch in your editor; after the editor exits, the result is
applied to the index. You are free to make arbitrary changes to the
patch, but note that some changes may have confusing results, or even
result in a patch that cannot be applied. If you want to abort the
operation entirely (i.e., stage nothing new in the index), simply delete
all lines of the patch. The list below describes some common things you
may see in a patch, and which editing operations make sense on them.
added content
Added content is represented by lines beginning with "+". You can
prevent staging any addition lines by deleting them.
removed content
Removed content is represented by lines beginning with "-". You can
prevent staging their removal by converting the "-" to a " " (space).
modified content
Modified content is represented by "-" lines (removing the old
content) followed by "+" lines (adding the replacement content). You
can prevent staging the modification by converting "-" lines to " ",
and removing "+" lines. Beware that modifying only half of the pair
is likely to introduce confusing changes to the index.
There are also more complex operations that can be performed. But beware
that because the patch is applied only to the index and not the working
tree, the working tree will appear to "undo" the change in the index. For
example, introducing a new line into the index that is in neither the
HEAD nor the working tree will stage the new line for commit, but the
line will appear to be reverted in the working tree.
Avoid using these constructs, or do so with extreme caution.
removing untouched content
Content which does not differ between the index and working tree may
be shown on context lines, beginning with a " " (space). You can
stage context lines for removal by converting the space to a "-". The
resulting working tree file will appear to re-add the content.
modifying existing content
One can also modify context lines by staging them for removal (by
converting " " to "-") and adding a "+" line with the new content.
Similarly, one can modify "+" lines for existing additions or
modifications. In all cases, the new modification will appear
reverted in the working tree.
new content
You may also add new content that does not exist in the patch; simply
add new lines, each starting with "+". The addition will appear
reverted in the working tree.
There are also several operations which should be avoided entirely, as
they will make the patch impossible to apply:
o adding context (" ") or removal ("-") lines
o deleting context or removal lines
o modifying the contents of context or removal lines
CONFIGURATION
Everything below this line in this section is selectively included from
the git-config(1) documentation. The content is the same as what's found
there:
add.ignoreErrors, add.ignore-errors (deprecated)
Tells git add to continue adding files when some files cannot be
added due to indexing errors. Equivalent to the --ignore-errors
option of git-add(1). add.ignore-errors is deprecated, as it does
not follow the usual naming convention for configuration variables.
add.interactive.useBuiltin
Unused configuration variable. Used in Git versions v2.25.0 to
v2.36.0 to enable the built-in version of git-add(1)'s interactive
mode, which then became the default in Git versions v2.37.0 to
v2.39.0.
SEE ALSO
git-status(1) git-rm(1) git-reset(1) git-mv(1) git-commit(1) git-update-
index(1)
GIT
Part of the git(1) suite
Git 2.40.0 03/13/2023 git-add(1)
git 2.40.0 - Generated Tue Mar 14 08:17:27 CDT 2023