1GIT-UPDATE-INDEX(1)               Git Manual               GIT-UPDATE-INDEX(1)
2
3
4

NAME

6       git-update-index - Register file contents in the working tree to the
7       index
8

SYNOPSIS

10       git update-index
11                    [--add] [--remove | --force-remove] [--replace]
12                    [--refresh] [-q] [--unmerged] [--ignore-missing]
13                    [(--cacheinfo <mode>,<object>,<file>)...]
14                    [--chmod=(+|-)x]
15                    [--[no-]assume-unchanged]
16                    [--[no-]skip-worktree]
17                    [--[no-]ignore-skip-worktree-entries]
18                    [--[no-]fsmonitor-valid]
19                    [--ignore-submodules]
20                    [--[no-]split-index]
21                    [--[no-|test-|force-]untracked-cache]
22                    [--[no-]fsmonitor]
23                    [--really-refresh] [--unresolve] [--again | -g]
24                    [--info-only] [--index-info]
25                    [-z] [--stdin] [--index-version <n>]
26                    [--verbose]
27                    [--] [<file>...]
28

DESCRIPTION

30       Modifies the index. Each file mentioned is updated into the index and
31       any unmerged or needs updating state is cleared.
32
33       See also git-add(1) for a more user-friendly way to do some of the most
34       common operations on the index.
35
36       The way git update-index handles files it is told about can be modified
37       using the various options:
38

OPTIONS

40       --add
41           If a specified file isn’t in the index already then it’s added.
42           Default behaviour is to ignore new files.
43
44       --remove
45           If a specified file is in the index but is missing then it’s
46           removed. Default behavior is to ignore removed file.
47
48       --refresh
49           Looks at the current index and checks to see if merges or updates
50           are needed by checking stat() information.
51
52       -q
53           Quiet. If --refresh finds that the index needs an update, the
54           default behavior is to error out. This option makes git
55           update-index continue anyway.
56
57       --ignore-submodules
58           Do not try to update submodules. This option is only respected when
59           passed before --refresh.
60
61       --unmerged
62           If --refresh finds unmerged changes in the index, the default
63           behavior is to error out. This option makes git update-index
64           continue anyway.
65
66       --ignore-missing
67           Ignores missing files during a --refresh
68
69       --cacheinfo <mode>,<object>,<path>, --cacheinfo <mode> <object> <path>
70           Directly insert the specified info into the index. For backward
71           compatibility, you can also give these three arguments as three
72           separate parameters, but new users are encouraged to use a
73           single-parameter form.
74
75       --index-info
76           Read index information from stdin.
77
78       --chmod=(+|-)x
79           Set the execute permissions on the updated files.
80
81       --[no-]assume-unchanged
82           When this flag is specified, the object names recorded for the
83           paths are not updated. Instead, this option sets/unsets the "assume
84           unchanged" bit for the paths. When the "assume unchanged" bit is
85           on, the user promises not to change the file and allows Git to
86           assume that the working tree file matches what is recorded in the
87           index. If you want to change the working tree file, you need to
88           unset the bit to tell Git. This is sometimes helpful when working
89           with a big project on a filesystem that has very slow lstat(2)
90           system call (e.g. cifs).
91
92           Git will fail (gracefully) in case it needs to modify this file in
93           the index e.g. when merging in a commit; thus, in case the
94           assumed-untracked file is changed upstream, you will need to handle
95           the situation manually.
96
97       --really-refresh
98           Like --refresh, but checks stat information unconditionally,
99           without regard to the "assume unchanged" setting.
100
101       --[no-]skip-worktree
102           When one of these flags is specified, the object name recorded for
103           the paths are not updated. Instead, these options set and unset the
104           "skip-worktree" bit for the paths. See section "Skip-worktree bit"
105           below for more information.
106
107       --[no-]ignore-skip-worktree-entries
108           Do not remove skip-worktree (AKA "index-only") entries even when
109           the --remove option was specified.
110
111       --[no-]fsmonitor-valid
112           When one of these flags is specified, the object name recorded for
113           the paths are not updated. Instead, these options set and unset the
114           "fsmonitor valid" bit for the paths. See section "File System
115           Monitor" below for more information.
116
117       -g, --again
118           Runs git update-index itself on the paths whose index entries are
119           different from those from the HEAD commit.
120
121       --unresolve
122           Restores the unmerged or needs updating state of a file during a
123           merge if it was cleared by accident.
124
125       --info-only
126           Do not create objects in the object database for all <file>
127           arguments that follow this flag; just insert their object IDs into
128           the index.
129
130       --force-remove
131           Remove the file from the index even when the working directory
132           still has such a file. (Implies --remove.)
133
134       --replace
135           By default, when a file path exists in the index, git update-index
136           refuses an attempt to add path/file. Similarly if a file path/file
137           exists, a file path cannot be added. With --replace flag, existing
138           entries that conflict with the entry being added are automatically
139           removed with warning messages.
140
141       --stdin
142           Instead of taking list of paths from the command line, read list of
143           paths from the standard input. Paths are separated by LF (i.e. one
144           path per line) by default.
145
146       --verbose
147           Report what is being added and removed from index.
148
149       --index-version <n>
150           Write the resulting index out in the named on-disk format version.
151           Supported versions are 2, 3 and 4. The current default version is 2
152           or 3, depending on whether extra features are used, such as git add
153           -N.
154
155           Version 4 performs a simple pathname compression that reduces index
156           size by 30%-50% on large repositories, which results in faster load
157           time. Version 4 is relatively young (first released in 1.8.0 in
158           October 2012). Other Git implementations such as JGit and libgit2
159           may not support it yet.
160
161       -z
162           Only meaningful with --stdin or --index-info; paths are separated
163           with NUL character instead of LF.
164
165       --split-index, --no-split-index
166           Enable or disable split index mode. If split-index mode is already
167           enabled and --split-index is given again, all changes in
168           $GIT_DIR/index are pushed back to the shared index file.
169
170           These options take effect whatever the value of the core.splitIndex
171           configuration variable (see git-config(1)). But a warning is
172           emitted when the change goes against the configured value, as the
173           configured value will take effect next time the index is read and
174           this will remove the intended effect of the option.
175
176       --untracked-cache, --no-untracked-cache
177           Enable or disable untracked cache feature. Please use
178           --test-untracked-cache before enabling it.
179
180           These options take effect whatever the value of the
181           core.untrackedCache configuration variable (see git-config(1)). But
182           a warning is emitted when the change goes against the configured
183           value, as the configured value will take effect next time the index
184           is read and this will remove the intended effect of the option.
185
186       --test-untracked-cache
187           Only perform tests on the working directory to make sure untracked
188           cache can be used. You have to manually enable untracked cache
189           using --untracked-cache or --force-untracked-cache or the
190           core.untrackedCache configuration variable afterwards if you really
191           want to use it. If a test fails the exit code is 1 and a message
192           explains what is not working as needed, otherwise the exit code is
193           0 and OK is printed.
194
195       --force-untracked-cache
196           Same as --untracked-cache. Provided for backwards compatibility
197           with older versions of Git where --untracked-cache used to imply
198           --test-untracked-cache but this option would enable the extension
199           unconditionally.
200
201       --fsmonitor, --no-fsmonitor
202           Enable or disable files system monitor feature. These options take
203           effect whatever the value of the core.fsmonitor configuration
204           variable (see git-config(1)). But a warning is emitted when the
205           change goes against the configured value, as the configured value
206           will take effect next time the index is read and this will remove
207           the intended effect of the option.
208
209       --
210           Do not interpret any more arguments as options.
211
212       <file>
213           Files to act on. Note that files beginning with .  are discarded.
214           This includes ./file and dir/./file. If you don’t want this, then
215           use cleaner names. The same applies to directories ending / and
216           paths with //
217

USING --REFRESH

219       --refresh does not calculate a new sha1 file or bring the index up to
220       date for mode/content changes. But what it does do is to "re-match" the
221       stat information of a file with the index, so that you can refresh the
222       index for a file that hasn’t been changed but where the stat entry is
223       out of date.
224
225       For example, you’d want to do this after doing a git read-tree, to link
226       up the stat index details with the proper files.
227

USING --CACHEINFO OR --INFO-ONLY

229       --cacheinfo is used to register a file that is not in the current
230       working directory. This is useful for minimum-checkout merging.
231
232       To pretend you have a file at path with mode and sha1, say:
233
234           $ git update-index --add --cacheinfo <mode>,<sha1>,<path>
235
236       --info-only is used to register files without placing them in the
237       object database. This is useful for status-only repositories.
238
239       Both --cacheinfo and --info-only behave similarly: the index is updated
240       but the object database isn’t. --cacheinfo is useful when the object is
241       in the database but the file isn’t available locally. --info-only is
242       useful when the file is available, but you do not wish to update the
243       object database.
244

USING --INDEX-INFO

246       --index-info is a more powerful mechanism that lets you feed multiple
247       entry definitions from the standard input, and designed specifically
248       for scripts. It can take inputs of three formats:
249
250        1. mode SP type SP sha1 TAB path
251
252           This format is to stuff git ls-tree output into the index.
253
254        2. mode SP sha1 SP stage TAB path
255
256           This format is to put higher order stages into the index file and
257           matches git ls-files --stage output.
258
259        3. mode SP sha1 TAB path
260
261           This format is no longer produced by any Git command, but is and
262           will continue to be supported by update-index --index-info.
263
264       To place a higher stage entry to the index, the path should first be
265       removed by feeding a mode=0 entry for the path, and then feeding
266       necessary input lines in the third format.
267
268       For example, starting with this index:
269
270           $ git ls-files -s
271           100644 8a1218a1024a212bb3db30becd860315f9f3ac52 0       frotz
272
273       you can feed the following input to --index-info:
274
275           $ git update-index --index-info
276           0 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000      frotz
277           100644 8a1218a1024a212bb3db30becd860315f9f3ac52 1       frotz
278           100755 8a1218a1024a212bb3db30becd860315f9f3ac52 2       frotz
279
280       The first line of the input feeds 0 as the mode to remove the path; the
281       SHA-1 does not matter as long as it is well formatted. Then the second
282       and third line feeds stage 1 and stage 2 entries for that path. After
283       the above, we would end up with this:
284
285           $ git ls-files -s
286           100644 8a1218a1024a212bb3db30becd860315f9f3ac52 1       frotz
287           100755 8a1218a1024a212bb3db30becd860315f9f3ac52 2       frotz
288

USING “ASSUME UNCHANGED” BIT

290       Many operations in Git depend on your filesystem to have an efficient
291       lstat(2) implementation, so that st_mtime information for working tree
292       files can be cheaply checked to see if the file contents have changed
293       from the version recorded in the index file. Unfortunately, some
294       filesystems have inefficient lstat(2). If your filesystem is one of
295       them, you can set "assume unchanged" bit to paths you have not changed
296       to cause Git not to do this check. Note that setting this bit on a path
297       does not mean Git will check the contents of the file to see if it has
298       changed — it makes Git to omit any checking and assume it has not
299       changed. When you make changes to working tree files, you have to
300       explicitly tell Git about it by dropping "assume unchanged" bit, either
301       before or after you modify them.
302
303       In order to set "assume unchanged" bit, use --assume-unchanged option.
304       To unset, use --no-assume-unchanged. To see which files have the
305       "assume unchanged" bit set, use git ls-files -v (see git-ls-files(1)).
306
307       The command looks at core.ignorestat configuration variable. When this
308       is true, paths updated with git update-index paths... and paths updated
309       with other Git commands that update both index and working tree (e.g.
310       git apply --index, git checkout-index -u, and git read-tree -u) are
311       automatically marked as "assume unchanged". Note that "assume
312       unchanged" bit is not set if git update-index --refresh finds the
313       working tree file matches the index (use git update-index
314       --really-refresh if you want to mark them as "assume unchanged").
315
316       Sometimes users confuse the assume-unchanged bit with the skip-worktree
317       bit. See the final paragraph in the "Skip-worktree bit" section below
318       for an explanation of the differences.
319

EXAMPLES

321       To update and refresh only the files already checked out:
322
323           $ git checkout-index -n -f -a && git update-index --ignore-missing --refresh
324
325       On an inefficient filesystem with core.ignorestat set
326
327               $ git update-index --really-refresh              (1)
328               $ git update-index --no-assume-unchanged foo.c   (2)
329               $ git diff --name-only                           (3)
330               $ edit foo.c
331               $ git diff --name-only                           (4)
332               M foo.c
333               $ git update-index foo.c                         (5)
334               $ git diff --name-only                           (6)
335               $ edit foo.c
336               $ git diff --name-only                           (7)
337               $ git update-index --no-assume-unchanged foo.c   (8)
338               $ git diff --name-only                           (9)
339               M foo.c
340
341            1. forces lstat(2) to set "assume unchanged" bits for paths
342               that match index.
343            2. mark the path to be edited.
344            3. this does lstat(2) and finds index matches the path.
345            4. this does lstat(2) and finds index does not match the
346               path.
347            5. registering the new version to index sets "assume
348               unchanged" bit.
349            6. and it is assumed unchanged.
350            7. even after you edit it.
351            8. you can tell about the change after the fact.
352            9. now it checks with lstat(2) and finds it has been changed.
353

SKIP-WORKTREE BIT

355       Skip-worktree bit can be defined in one (long) sentence: Tell git to
356       avoid writing the file to the working directory when reasonably
357       possible, and treat the file as unchanged when it is not present in the
358       working directory.
359
360       Note that not all git commands will pay attention to this bit, and some
361       only partially support it.
362
363       The update-index flags and the read-tree capabilities relating to the
364       skip-worktree bit predated the introduction of the git-sparse-
365       checkout(1) command, which provides a much easier way to configure and
366       handle the skip-worktree bits. If you want to reduce your working tree
367       to only deal with a subset of the files in the repository, we strongly
368       encourage the use of git-sparse-checkout(1) in preference to the
369       low-level update-index and read-tree primitives.
370
371       The primary purpose of the skip-worktree bit is to enable sparse
372       checkouts, i.e. to have working directories with only a subset of paths
373       present. When the skip-worktree bit is set, Git commands (such as
374       switch, pull, merge) will avoid writing these files. However, these
375       commands will sometimes write these files anyway in important cases
376       such as conflicts during a merge or rebase. Git commands will also
377       avoid treating the lack of such files as an intentional deletion; for
378       example git add -u will not stage a deletion for these files and git
379       commit -a will not make a commit deleting them either.
380
381       Although this bit looks similar to assume-unchanged bit, its goal is
382       different. The assume-unchanged bit is for leaving the file in the
383       working tree but having Git omit checking it for changes and presuming
384       that the file has not been changed (though if it can determine without
385       stat’ing the file that it has changed, it is free to record the
386       changes). skip-worktree tells Git to ignore the absence of the file,
387       avoid updating it when possible with commands that normally update much
388       of the working directory (e.g. checkout, switch, pull, etc.), and not
389       have its absence be recorded in commits. Note that in sparse checkouts
390       (setup by git sparse-checkout or by configuring core.sparseCheckout to
391       true), if a file is marked as skip-worktree in the index but is found
392       in the working tree, Git will clear the skip-worktree bit for that
393       file.
394

SPLIT INDEX

396       This mode is designed for repositories with very large indexes, and
397       aims at reducing the time it takes to repeatedly write these indexes.
398
399       In this mode, the index is split into two files, $GIT_DIR/index and
400       $GIT_DIR/sharedindex.<SHA-1>. Changes are accumulated in
401       $GIT_DIR/index, the split index, while the shared index file contains
402       all index entries and stays unchanged.
403
404       All changes in the split index are pushed back to the shared index file
405       when the number of entries in the split index reaches a level specified
406       by the splitIndex.maxPercentChange config variable (see git-config(1)).
407
408       Each time a new shared index file is created, the old shared index
409       files are deleted if their modification time is older than what is
410       specified by the splitIndex.sharedIndexExpire config variable (see git-
411       config(1)).
412
413       To avoid deleting a shared index file that is still used, its
414       modification time is updated to the current time every time a new split
415       index based on the shared index file is either created or read from.
416

UNTRACKED CACHE

418       This cache is meant to speed up commands that involve determining
419       untracked files such as git status.
420
421       This feature works by recording the mtime of the working tree
422       directories and then omitting reading directories and stat calls
423       against files in those directories whose mtime hasn’t changed. For this
424       to work the underlying operating system and file system must change the
425       st_mtime field of directories if files in the directory are added,
426       modified or deleted.
427
428       You can test whether the filesystem supports that with the
429       --test-untracked-cache option. The --untracked-cache option used to
430       implicitly perform that test in older versions of Git, but that’s no
431       longer the case.
432
433       If you want to enable (or disable) this feature, it is easier to use
434       the core.untrackedCache configuration variable (see git-config(1)) than
435       using the --untracked-cache option to git update-index in each
436       repository, especially if you want to do so across all repositories you
437       use, because you can set the configuration variable to true (or false)
438       in your $HOME/.gitconfig just once and have it affect all repositories
439       you touch.
440
441       When the core.untrackedCache configuration variable is changed, the
442       untracked cache is added to or removed from the index the next time a
443       command reads the index; while when --[no-|force-]untracked-cache are
444       used, the untracked cache is immediately added to or removed from the
445       index.
446
447       Before 2.17, the untracked cache had a bug where replacing a directory
448       with a symlink to another directory could cause it to incorrectly show
449       files tracked by git as untracked. See the "status: add a failing test
450       showing a core.untrackedCache bug" commit to git.git. A workaround for
451       that is (and this might work for other undiscovered bugs in the
452       future):
453
454           $ git -c core.untrackedCache=false status
455
456       This bug has also been shown to affect non-symlink cases of replacing a
457       directory with a file when it comes to the internal structures of the
458       untracked cache, but no case has been reported where this resulted in
459       wrong "git status" output.
460
461       There are also cases where existing indexes written by git versions
462       before 2.17 will reference directories that don’t exist anymore,
463       potentially causing many "could not open directory" warnings to be
464       printed on "git status". These are new warnings for existing issues
465       that were previously silently discarded.
466
467       As with the bug described above the solution is to one-off do a "git
468       status" run with core.untrackedCache=false to flush out the leftover
469       bad data.
470

FILE SYSTEM MONITOR

472       This feature is intended to speed up git operations for repos that have
473       large working directories.
474
475       It enables git to work together with a file system monitor (see git-
476       fsmonitor--daemon(1) and the "fsmonitor-watchman" section of
477       githooks(5)) that can inform it as to what files have been modified.
478       This enables git to avoid having to lstat() every file to find modified
479       files.
480
481       When used in conjunction with the untracked cache, it can further
482       improve performance by avoiding the cost of scanning the entire working
483       directory looking for new files.
484
485       If you want to enable (or disable) this feature, it is easier to use
486       the core.fsmonitor configuration variable (see git-config(1)) than
487       using the --fsmonitor option to git update-index in each repository,
488       especially if you want to do so across all repositories you use,
489       because you can set the configuration variable in your $HOME/.gitconfig
490       just once and have it affect all repositories you touch.
491
492       When the core.fsmonitor configuration variable is changed, the file
493       system monitor is added to or removed from the index the next time a
494       command reads the index. When --[no-]fsmonitor are used, the file
495       system monitor is immediately added to or removed from the index.
496

CONFIGURATION

498       The command honors core.filemode configuration variable. If your
499       repository is on a filesystem whose executable bits are unreliable,
500       this should be set to false (see git-config(1)). This causes the
501       command to ignore differences in file modes recorded in the index and
502       the file mode on the filesystem if they differ only on executable bit.
503       On such an unfortunate filesystem, you may need to use git update-index
504       --chmod=.
505
506       Quite similarly, if core.symlinks configuration variable is set to
507       false (see git-config(1)), symbolic links are checked out as plain
508       files, and this command does not modify a recorded file mode from
509       symbolic link to regular file.
510
511       The command looks at core.ignorestat configuration variable. See Using
512       "assume unchanged" bit section above.
513
514       The command also looks at core.trustctime configuration variable. It
515       can be useful when the inode change time is regularly modified by
516       something outside Git (file system crawlers and backup systems use
517       ctime for marking files processed) (see git-config(1)).
518
519       The untracked cache extension can be enabled by the core.untrackedCache
520       configuration variable (see git-config(1)).
521

NOTES

523       Users often try to use the assume-unchanged and skip-worktree bits to
524       tell Git to ignore changes to files that are tracked. This does not
525       work as expected, since Git may still check working tree files against
526       the index when performing certain operations. In general, Git does not
527       provide a way to ignore changes to tracked files, so alternate
528       solutions are recommended.
529
530       For example, if the file you want to change is some sort of config
531       file, the repository can include a sample config file that can then be
532       copied into the ignored name and modified. The repository can even
533       include a script to treat the sample file as a template, modifying and
534       copying it automatically.
535

SEE ALSO

537       git-config(1), git-add(1), git-ls-files(1)
538

GIT

540       Part of the git(1) suite
541
542
543
544Git 2.39.1                        2023-01-13               GIT-UPDATE-INDEX(1)
Impressum