From 5f42ac921fe06bbb80df82d8fa5cb15701ec2f60 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: "J. Bruce Fields" Date: Sun, 5 Aug 2007 19:16:09 -0400 Subject: [PATCH] documentation: use the word "index" in the git-add manual page It was a neat trick to show that you could introduce the git-add manual page without using the word "index", and it was certainly an improvement over the previous man page (which started out "A simple wrapper for git-update-index to add files to the index..."). But it's possible to use the standard terminology without sacrificing user-friendliness. So, rewrite to use the word "index" when appropriate. Signed-off-by: J. Bruce Fields --- Documentation/git-add.txt | 35 +++++++++++++++++++---------------- 1 file changed, 19 insertions(+), 16 deletions(-) diff --git a/Documentation/git-add.txt b/Documentation/git-add.txt index a0c9f68580..37077b523e 100644 --- a/Documentation/git-add.txt +++ b/Documentation/git-add.txt @@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ git-add(1) NAME ---- -git-add - Add file contents to the changeset to be committed next +git-add - Add file contents to the index SYNOPSIS -------- @@ -11,24 +11,27 @@ SYNOPSIS DESCRIPTION ----------- -All the changed file contents to be committed together in a single set -of changes must be "added" with the 'add' command before using the -'commit' command. This is not only for adding new files. Even modified -files must be added to the set of changes about to be committed. +This command adds the current content of new or modified files to the +index, thus staging that content for inclusion in the next commit. -This command can be performed multiple times before a commit. The added -content corresponds to the state of specified file(s) at the time the -'add' command is used. This means the 'commit' command will not consider -subsequent changes to already added content if it is not added again before -the 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. -The 'git status' command can be used to obtain a summary of what is included -for the next commit. +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. -This command can be used to add ignored files with `-f` (force) -option, but they have to be -explicitly and exactly specified from the command line. File globbing -and recursive behaviour do not add ignored files. +The 'git status' command can be used to obtain a summary of which +files have changes that are staged for the next commit. + +The 'add' command can be used to add ignored files with `-f` (force) +option, but they have to be explicitly and exactly specified from the +command line. File globbing and recursive behaviour do not add ignored +files. Please see gitlink:git-commit[1] for alternative ways to add content to a commit.