On Thu, 30 Nov 2006, Junio C Hamano wrote:
> Nicolas Pitre <nico@xxxxxxx> writes:
>
> > ... But let me repeat my last question:
> >
> > Would it make sense for "git add" to do the same as "git update-index"
> > on already tracked files? Given the explanation above this would make
> > 100% sense to me.
>
> I think this makes sense and what we did in the original "git
> add".
Wonderful! We might be converging to something then.
Because, conceptually, it then becomes much easier to tell newbies about
the index as follows (this could be pasted in a tutorial somewhere):
Contrary to other SCMs, with GIT you have to explicitly "add" all
the changes you want to commit together. This can be done in a few
different ways:
1) By using "git add <file_spec...>"
This can be performed multiple times before a commit. Note that
this is not only for adding new files. Even modified files must be
added to the set of changes about to be committed. The "git
status" command gives you a summary of what is included so far for
the commit. When done you should use the "git commit" command to
make it real.
Note: don't forget to "add" a file again if you modified it after
the first "add" and before "commit". Otherwise only the previous
"added" state of that file will be committed.
2) By using "git commit -a" directly
This is a quick way to automatically "add" all modified files to
the set of changes and perform the actual commit without having to
separately "add" them. This will not "add" new files -- those
files still have to be added explicitly before performing a commit.
Here's a twist. If you do "git commit <file1> <file2> ..." then
only the changes belonging to those explicitly specified files will
be committed, entirely bypassing the current "added" changes. Those
"added" changes will still remain available for a subsequent commit.
There is a twist about that twist: if you do "git commit -i <file>..."
then the commit will consider changes to those specified files
_including_ all "added" changes so far.
But for instance it is best to only remember "git add" + "git
commit" and/or "git commit -a".
Doesn't it sounds nice? The index is being introduced up front without
even mentioning it, and I think the above should be fairly palatable to
newbies as well. Would only lack some enhancements to the commit
template and the "nothing to commit" message so the user is cued about
the fact that "current changeset is empty -- don't forget to 'git add'
modified files, or use 'git commit -a'".
What do you think?
Nicolas
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