1GIT-ADD(1) Git Manual GIT-ADD(1)
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6 git-add - Add file contents to the index
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9 git add [--verbose | -v] [--dry-run | -n] [--force | -f] [--interactive | -i] [--patch | -p]
10 [--edit | -e] [--[no-]all | --[no-]ignore-removal | [--update | -u]] [--sparse]
11 [--intent-to-add | -N] [--refresh] [--ignore-errors] [--ignore-missing] [--renormalize]
12 [--chmod=(+|-)x] [--pathspec-from-file=<file> [--pathspec-file-nul]]
13 [--] [<pathspec>...]
14
16 This command updates the index using the current content found in the
17 working tree, to prepare the content staged for the next commit. It
18 typically adds the current content of existing paths as a whole, but
19 with some options it can also be used to add content with only part of
20 the changes made to the working tree files applied, or remove paths
21 that do not exist in the working tree anymore.
22 The "index" holds a snapshot of the content of the working tree, and it
24 is this snapshot that is taken as the contents of the next commit. Thus
25 after making any changes to the working tree, and before running the
26 commit command, you must use the add command to add any new or modified
27 files to the index.
28 This command can be performed multiple times before a commit. It only
30 adds the content of the specified file(s) at the time the add command
31 is run; if you want subsequent changes included in the next commit,
32 then you must run git add again to add the new content to the index.
33 The git status command can be used to obtain a summary of which files
35 have changes that are staged for the next commit.
36 The git add command will not add ignored files by default. If any
38 ignored files were explicitly specified on the command line, git add
39 will fail with a list of ignored files. Ignored files reached by
40 directory recursion or filename globbing performed by Git (quote your
41 globs before the shell) will be silently ignored. The git add command
42 can be used to add ignored files with the -f (force) option.
43 Please see git-commit(1) for alternative ways to add content to a
45 commit.
46
48 <pathspec>...
49 Files to add content from. Fileglobs (e.g. *.c) can be given to
50 add all matching files. Also a leading directory name (e.g. dir to
51 add dir/file1 and dir/file2) can be given to update the index to
52 match the current state of the directory as a whole (e.g.
53 specifying dir will record not just a file dir/file1 modified in
54 the working tree, a file dir/file2 added to the working tree, but
55 also a file dir/file3 removed from the working tree). Note that
56 older versions of Git used to ignore removed files; use --no-all
57 option if you want to add modified or new files but ignore removed
58 ones.
59 For more details about the <pathspec> syntax, see the pathspec
61 entry in gitglossary(7).
62 -n, --dry-run
64 Don’t actually add the file(s), just show if they exist and/or will
65 be ignored.
66 -v, --verbose
68 Be verbose.
69 -f, --force
71 Allow adding otherwise ignored files.
72 --sparse
74 Allow updating index entries outside of the sparse-checkout cone.
75 Normally, git add refuses to update index entries whose paths do
76 not fit within the sparse-checkout cone, since those files might be
77 removed from the working tree without warning. See git-sparse-
78 checkout(1) for more details.
79 -i, --interactive
81 Add modified contents in the working tree interactively to the
82 index. Optional path arguments may be supplied to limit operation
83 to a subset of the working tree. See “Interactive mode” for
84 details.
85 -p, --patch
87 Interactively choose hunks of patch between the index and the work
88 tree and add them to the index. This gives the user a chance to
89 review the difference before adding modified contents to the index.
90 This effectively runs add --interactive, but bypasses the initial
92 command menu and directly jumps to the patch subcommand. See
93 “Interactive mode” for details.
94 -e, --edit
96 Open the diff vs. the index in an editor and let the user edit it.
97 After the editor was closed, adjust the hunk headers and apply the
98 patch to the index.
99 The intent of this option is to pick and choose lines of the patch
101 to apply, or even to modify the contents of lines to be staged.
102 This can be quicker and more flexible than using the interactive
103 hunk selector. However, it is easy to confuse oneself and create a
104 patch that does not apply to the index. See EDITING PATCHES below.
105 -u, --update
107 Update the index just where it already has an entry matching
108 <pathspec>. This removes as well as modifies index entries to match
109 the working tree, but adds no new files.
110 If no <pathspec> is given when -u option is used, all tracked files
112 in the entire working tree are updated (old versions of Git used to
113 limit the update to the current directory and its subdirectories).
114 -A, --all, --no-ignore-removal
116 Update the index not only where the working tree has a file
117 matching <pathspec> but also where the index already has an entry.
118 This adds, modifies, and removes index entries to match the working
119 tree.
120 If no <pathspec> is given when -A option is used, all files in the
122 entire working tree are updated (old versions of Git used to limit
123 the update to the current directory and its subdirectories).
124 --no-all, --ignore-removal
126 Update the index by adding new files that are unknown to the index
127 and files modified in the working tree, but ignore files that have
128 been removed from the working tree. This option is a no-op when no
129 <pathspec> is used.
130 This option is primarily to help users who are used to older
132 versions of Git, whose "git add <pathspec>..." was a synonym for
133 "git add --no-all <pathspec>...", i.e. ignored removed files.
134 -N, --intent-to-add
136 Record only the fact that the path will be added later. An entry
137 for the path is placed in the index with no content. This is useful
138 for, among other things, showing the unstaged content of such files
139 with git diff and committing them with git commit -a.
140 --refresh
142 Don’t add the file(s), but only refresh their stat() information in
143 the index.
144 --ignore-errors
146 If some files could not be added because of errors indexing them,
147 do not abort the operation, but continue adding the others. The
148 command shall still exit with non-zero status. The configuration
149 variable add.ignoreErrors can be set to true to make this the
150 default behaviour.
151 --ignore-missing
153 This option can only be used together with --dry-run. By using this
154 option the user can check if any of the given files would be
155 ignored, no matter if they are already present in the work tree or
156 not.
157 --no-warn-embedded-repo
159 By default, git add will warn when adding an embedded repository to
160 the index without using git submodule add to create an entry in
161 .gitmodules. This option will suppress the warning (e.g., if you
162 are manually performing operations on submodules).
163 --renormalize
165 Apply the "clean" process freshly to all tracked files to forcibly
166 add them again to the index. This is useful after changing
167 core.autocrlf configuration or the text attribute in order to
168 correct files added with wrong CRLF/LF line endings. This option
169 implies -u. Lone CR characters are untouched, thus while a CRLF
170 cleans to LF, a CRCRLF sequence is only partially cleaned to CRLF.
171 --chmod=(+|-)x
173 Override the executable bit of the added files. The executable bit
174 is only changed in the index, the files on disk are left unchanged.
175 --pathspec-from-file=<file>
177 Pathspec is passed in <file> instead of commandline args. If <file>
178 is exactly - then standard input is used. Pathspec elements are
179 separated by LF or CR/LF. Pathspec elements can be quoted as
180 explained for the configuration variable core.quotePath (see git-
181 config(1)). See also --pathspec-file-nul and global
182 --literal-pathspecs.
183 --pathspec-file-nul
185 Only meaningful with --pathspec-from-file. Pathspec elements are
186 separated with NUL character and all other characters are taken
187 literally (including newlines and quotes).
188 --
190 This option can be used to separate command-line options from the
191 list of files, (useful when filenames might be mistaken for
192 command-line options).
193
195 • Adds content from all *.txt files under Documentation directory and
196 its subdirectories:
197 $ git add Documentation/\*.txt
199 Note that the asterisk * is quoted from the shell in this example;
201 this lets the command include the files from subdirectories of
202 Documentation/ directory.
203 • Considers adding content from all git-*.sh scripts:
205 $ git add git-*.sh
207 Because this example lets the shell expand the asterisk (i.e. you
209 are listing the files explicitly), it does not consider
210 subdir/git-foo.sh.
211
213 When the command enters the interactive mode, it shows the output of
214 the status subcommand, and then goes into its interactive command loop.
215 The command loop shows the list of subcommands available, and gives a
217 prompt "What now> ". In general, when the prompt ends with a single >,
218 you can pick only one of the choices given and type return, like this:
219 *** Commands ***
221 1: status 2: update 3: revert 4: add untracked
222 5: patch 6: diff 7: quit 8: help
223 What now> 1
224 You also could say s or sta or status above as long as the choice is
226 unique.
227 The main command loop has 6 subcommands (plus help and quit).
229 status
231 This shows the change between HEAD and index (i.e. what will be
232 committed if you say git commit), and between index and working
233 tree files (i.e. what you could stage further before git commit
234 using git add) for each path. A sample output looks like this:
235 staged unstaged path
237 1: binary nothing foo.png
238 2: +403/-35 +1/-1 add-interactive.c
239 It shows that foo.png has differences from HEAD (but that is binary
241 so line count cannot be shown) and there is no difference between
242 indexed copy and the working tree version (if the working tree
243 version were also different, binary would have been shown in place
244 of nothing). The other file, add-interactive.c, has 403 lines added
245 and 35 lines deleted if you commit what is in the index, but
246 working tree file has further modifications (one addition and one
247 deletion).
248 update
250 This shows the status information and issues an "Update>>" prompt.
251 When the prompt ends with double >>, you can make more than one
252 selection, concatenated with whitespace or comma. Also you can say
253 ranges. E.g. "2-5 7,9" to choose 2,3,4,5,7,9 from the list. If the
254 second number in a range is omitted, all remaining patches are
255 taken. E.g. "7-" to choose 7,8,9 from the list. You can say * to
256 choose everything.
257 What you chose are then highlighted with *, like this:
259 staged unstaged path
261 1: binary nothing foo.png
262 * 2: +403/-35 +1/-1 add-interactive.c
263 To remove selection, prefix the input with - like this:
265 Update>> -2
267 After making the selection, answer with an empty line to stage the
269 contents of working tree files for selected paths in the index.
270 revert
272 This has a very similar UI to update, and the staged information
273 for selected paths are reverted to that of the HEAD version.
274 Reverting new paths makes them untracked.
275 add untracked
277 This has a very similar UI to update and revert, and lets you add
278 untracked paths to the index.
279 patch
281 This lets you choose one path out of a status like selection. After
282 choosing the path, it presents the diff between the index and the
283 working tree file and asks you if you want to stage the change of
284 each hunk. You can select one of the following options and type
285 return:
286 y - stage this hunk
288 n - do not stage this hunk
289 q - quit; do not stage this hunk or any of the remaining ones
290 a - stage this hunk and all later hunks in the file
291 d - do not stage this hunk or any of the later hunks in the file
292 g - select a hunk to go to
293 / - search for a hunk matching the given regex
294 j - leave this hunk undecided, see next undecided hunk
295 J - leave this hunk undecided, see next hunk
296 k - leave this hunk undecided, see previous undecided hunk
297 K - leave this hunk undecided, see previous hunk
298 s - split the current hunk into smaller hunks
299 e - manually edit the current hunk
300 ? - print help
301 After deciding the fate for all hunks, if there is any hunk that
303 was chosen, the index is updated with the selected hunks.
304 You can omit having to type return here, by setting the
306 configuration variable interactive.singleKey to true.
307 diff
309 This lets you review what will be committed (i.e. between HEAD and
310 index).
311
313 Invoking git add -e or selecting e from the interactive hunk selector
314 will open a patch in your editor; after the editor exits, the result is
315 applied to the index. You are free to make arbitrary changes to the
316 patch, but note that some changes may have confusing results, or even
317 result in a patch that cannot be applied. If you want to abort the
318 operation entirely (i.e., stage nothing new in the index), simply
319 delete all lines of the patch. The list below describes some common
320 things you may see in a patch, and which editing operations make sense
321 on them.
322 added content
324 Added content is represented by lines beginning with "+". You can
325 prevent staging any addition lines by deleting them.
326 removed content
328 Removed content is represented by lines beginning with "-". You can
329 prevent staging their removal by converting the "-" to a " "
330 (space).
331 modified content
333 Modified content is represented by "-" lines (removing the old
334 content) followed by "+" lines (adding the replacement content).
335 You can prevent staging the modification by converting "-" lines to
336 " ", and removing "+" lines. Beware that modifying only half of the
337 pair is likely to introduce confusing changes to the index.
338 There are also more complex operations that can be performed. But
340 beware that because the patch is applied only to the index and not the
341 working tree, the working tree will appear to "undo" the change in the
342 index. For example, introducing a new line into the index that is in
343 neither the HEAD nor the working tree will stage the new line for
344 commit, but the line will appear to be reverted in the working tree.
345 Avoid using these constructs, or do so with extreme caution.
347 removing untouched content
349 Content which does not differ between the index and working tree
350 may be shown on context lines, beginning with a " " (space). You
351 can stage context lines for removal by converting the space to a
352 "-". The resulting working tree file will appear to re-add the
353 content.
354 modifying existing content
356 One can also modify context lines by staging them for removal (by
357 converting " " to "-") and adding a "+" line with the new content.
358 Similarly, one can modify "+" lines for existing additions or
359 modifications. In all cases, the new modification will appear
360 reverted in the working tree.
361 new content
363 You may also add new content that does not exist in the patch;
364 simply add new lines, each starting with "+". The addition will
365 appear reverted in the working tree.
366 There are also several operations which should be avoided entirely, as
368 they will make the patch impossible to apply:
369 • adding context (" ") or removal ("-") lines
371 • deleting context or removal lines
373 • modifying the contents of context or removal lines
375
377 Everything below this line in this section is selectively included from
378 the git-config(1) documentation. The content is the same as what’s
379 found there:
380 add.ignoreErrors, add.ignore-errors (deprecated)
382 Tells git add to continue adding files when some files cannot be
383 added due to indexing errors. Equivalent to the --ignore-errors
384 option of git-add(1). add.ignore-errors is deprecated, as it does
385 not follow the usual naming convention for configuration variables.
386 add.interactive.useBuiltin
388 Unused configuration variable. Used in Git versions v2.25.0 to
389 v2.36.0 to enable the built-in version of git-add(1)'s interactive
390 mode, which then became the default in Git versions v2.37.0 to
391 v2.39.0.
392
394 git-status(1) git-rm(1) git-reset(1) git-mv(1) git-commit(1) git-
395 update-index(1)
396
398 Part of the git(1) suite
399Git 2.43.0 11/20/2023 GIT-ADD(1)