Just wanted to point to a Dr. Dobb's article from Monday: http://www.drdobbs.com/tools/getting-started-with-git-the-fundamental/240160261?pgno=2 The author does not use the use the word "index" at all. Instead he writes in following way: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Staging Changes One of Git's best features is that it offers a staging process. You can stage the modified files that you want to commit. Other version control systems await your one command before your files are changed in the repository — generally the remote repository for the entire team. When you commit files in Git, files are held in a staging area. You will later commit all the files from the staging area to the larger repository. So, let's say you wanted to make a change involving files A and B. You changed file A. You then remembered something unrelated to do with file Z and you modified that. Then you went back to your initial change, modifying file B. Git allows you to add files A and B to staging, while leaving file Z "unstaged." Then you can push only the staged files to your repository. But you don't! You realize you need to make a change to file C as well. You "add" it. Now files A,B, and C are staged, and Z is still unstaged. You commit the staged changes only. [...] --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sorry for not responding to your comments Drew, no time at the moment. -- Piotr Krukowiecki -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe git" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html