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NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | OPTIONS | EXAMPLES | INTERACTIVE MODE | EDITING PATCHES | CONFIGURATION | SEE ALSO | GIT | COLOPHON |
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GIT-ADD(1) Git Manual GIT-ADD(1)
git-add - Add file contents to the index
git add [--verbose | -v] [--dry-run | -n] [--force | -f] [--interactive | -i] [--patch | -p]
[--edit | -e] [--[no-]all | -A | --[no-]ignore-removal | [--update | -u]] [--sparse]
[--intent-to-add | -N] [--refresh] [--ignore-errors] [--ignore-missing] [--renormalize]
[--chmod=(+|-)x] [--pathspec-from-file=<file> [--pathspec-file-nul]]
[--] [<pathspec>...]
This command updates the index using the current content found in
the working tree, to prepare the content staged for the next
commit. It typically adds the current content of existing paths as
a whole, but with some options it can also be used to add content
with only part of the changes made to the working tree files
applied, or remove paths that do not exist in the working tree
anymore.
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 tree, and
before running the commit command, you must use the add command to
add any new or modified files to the index.
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.
The git status command can be used to obtain a summary of which
files have changes that are staged for the next commit.
The git add command will not add ignored files by default. If any
ignored files were explicitly specified on the command line, git
add will fail with a list of ignored files. Ignored files reached
by directory recursion or filename globbing performed by Git
(quote your globs before the shell) will be silently ignored. The
git add command can be used to add ignored files with the -f
(force) option.
Please see git-commit(1) for alternative ways to add content to a
commit.
<pathspec>...
Files to add content from. Fileglobs (e.g. *.c) can be given
to add all matching files. Also a leading directory name (e.g.
dir to add dir/file1 and dir/file2) can be given to update the
index to match the current state of the directory as a whole
(e.g. specifying dir will record not just a file dir/file1
modified in the working tree, a file dir/file2 added to the
working tree, but also a file dir/file3 removed from the
working tree). Note that older versions of Git used to ignore
removed files; use --no-all option if you want to add modified
or new files but ignore removed ones.
For more details about the <pathspec> syntax, see the pathspec
entry in gitglossary(7).
-n, --dry-run
Don’t actually add the file(s), just show if they exist and/or
will be ignored.
-v, --verbose
Be verbose.
-f, --force
Allow adding otherwise ignored files.
--sparse
Allow updating index entries outside of the sparse-checkout
cone. Normally, git add refuses to update index entries whose
paths do not fit within the sparse-checkout cone, since those
files might be removed from the working tree without warning.
See git-sparse-checkout(1) for more details.
-i, --interactive
Add modified contents in the working tree interactively to the
index. Optional path arguments may be supplied to limit
operation to a subset of the working tree. See “Interactive
mode” for details.
-p, --patch
Interactively choose hunks of patch between the index and the
work tree and add them to the index. This gives the user a
chance to review the difference before adding modified
contents to the index.
This effectively runs add --interactive, but bypasses the
initial command menu and directly jumps to the patch
subcommand. See “Interactive mode” for details.
-U<n>, --unified=<n>
Generate diffs with <n> lines of context. Defaults to
diff.context or 3 if the config option is unset.
--inter-hunk-context=<n>
Show the context between diff hunks, up to the specified
<number> of lines, thereby fusing hunks that are close to each
other. Defaults to diff.interHunkContext or 0 if the config
option is unset.
-e, --edit
Open the diff vs. the index in an editor and let the user edit
it. After the editor was closed, adjust the hunk headers and
apply the patch to the index.
The intent of this option is to pick and choose lines of the
patch to apply, or even to modify the contents of lines to be
staged. This can be quicker and more flexible than using the
interactive hunk selector. However, it is easy to confuse
oneself and create a patch that does not apply to the index.
See EDITING PATCHES below.
-u, --update
Update the index just where it already has an entry matching
<pathspec>. This removes as well as modifies index entries to
match the working tree, but adds no new files.
If no <pathspec> is given when -u option is used, all tracked
files in the entire working tree are updated (old versions of
Git used to limit the update to the current directory and its
subdirectories).
-A, --all, --no-ignore-removal
Update the index not only where the working tree has a file
matching <pathspec> but also where the index already has an
entry. This adds, modifies, and removes index entries to match
the working tree.
If no <pathspec> is given when -A option is used, all files in
the entire working tree are updated (old versions of Git used
to limit the update to the current directory and its
subdirectories).
--no-all, --ignore-removal
Update the index by adding new files that are unknown to the
index and files modified in the working tree, but ignore files
that have been removed from the working tree. This option is a
no-op when no <pathspec> is used.
This option is primarily to help users who are used to older
versions of Git, whose git add <pathspec>... was a synonym for
git add --no-all <pathspec>..., i.e. ignored removed files.
-N, --intent-to-add
Record only the fact that the path will be added later. An
entry for the path is placed in the index with no content.
This is useful for, among other things, showing the unstaged
content of such files with git diff and committing them with
git commit -a.
--refresh
Don’t add the file(s), but only refresh their stat()
information in the index.
--ignore-errors
If some files could not be added because of errors indexing
them, do not abort the operation, but continue adding the
others. The command shall still exit with non-zero status. The
configuration variable add.ignoreErrors can be set to true to
make this the default behaviour.
--ignore-missing
This option can only be used together with --dry-run. By using
this option the user can check if any of the given files would
be ignored, no matter if they are already present in the work
tree or not.
--no-warn-embedded-repo
By default, git add will warn when adding an embedded
repository to the index without using git submodule add to
create an entry in .gitmodules. This option will suppress the
warning (e.g., if you are manually performing operations on
submodules).
--renormalize
Apply the "clean" process freshly to all tracked files to
forcibly add them again to the index. This is useful after
changing core.autocrlf configuration or the text attribute in
order to correct files added with wrong CRLF/LF line endings.
This option implies -u. Lone CR characters are untouched, thus
while a CRLF cleans to LF, a CRCRLF sequence is only partially
cleaned to CRLF.
--chmod=(+|-)x
Override the executable bit of the added files. The executable
bit is only changed in the index, the files on disk are left
unchanged.
--pathspec-from-file=<file>
Pathspec is passed in <file> instead of commandline args. If
<file> is exactly - then standard input is used. Pathspec
elements are separated by LF or CR/LF. Pathspec elements can
be quoted as explained for the configuration variable
core.quotePath (see git-config(1)). See also
--pathspec-file-nul and global --literal-pathspecs.
--pathspec-file-nul
Only meaningful with --pathspec-from-file. Pathspec elements
are separated with NUL character and all other characters are
taken literally (including newlines and quotes).
--
This option can be used to separate command-line options from
the list of files, (useful when filenames might be mistaken
for command-line options).
• Adds content from all *.txt files under Documentation
directory and its subdirectories:
$ git add Documentation/\*.txt
Note that the asterisk * is quoted from the shell in this
example; this lets the command include the files from
subdirectories of Documentation/ directory.
• Considers adding content from all git-*.sh scripts:
$ git add git-*.sh
Because this example lets the shell expand the asterisk (i.e.
you are listing the files explicitly), it does not consider
subdir/git-foo.sh.
When the command enters the interactive mode, it shows the output
of the status subcommand, and then goes into its interactive
command loop.
The command loop shows the list of subcommands available, and
gives a prompt "What now> ". In general, when the prompt ends with
a single >, you can pick only one of the choices given and type
return, like this:
*** Commands ***
1: status 2: update 3: revert 4: add untracked
5: patch 6: diff 7: quit 8: help
What now> 1
You also could say s or sta or status above as long as the choice
is unique.
The main command loop has 6 subcommands (plus help and quit).
status
This shows the change between HEAD and index (i.e. what will
be committed if you say git commit), and between index and
working tree files (i.e. what you could stage further before
git commit using git add) for each path. A sample output looks
like this:
staged unstaged path
1: binary nothing foo.png
2: +403/-35 +1/-1 add-interactive.c
It shows that foo.png has differences from HEAD (but that is
binary so line count cannot be shown) and there is no
difference between indexed copy and the working tree version
(if the working tree version were also different, binary would
have been shown in place of nothing). The other file,
add-interactive.c, has 403 lines added and 35 lines deleted if
you commit what is in the index, but working tree file has
further modifications (one addition and one deletion).
update
This shows the status information and issues an "Update>>"
prompt. When the prompt ends with double >>, you can make more
than one selection, concatenated with whitespace or comma.
Also you can say ranges. E.g. "2-5 7,9" to choose 2,3,4,5,7,9
from the list. If the second number in a range is omitted, all
remaining patches are taken. E.g. "7-" to choose 7,8,9 from
the list. You can say * to choose everything.
What you chose are then highlighted with *, like this:
staged unstaged path
1: binary nothing foo.png
* 2: +403/-35 +1/-1 add-interactive.c
To remove selection, prefix the input with - like this:
Update>> -2
After making the selection, answer with an empty line to stage
the contents of working tree files for selected paths in the
index.
revert
This has a very similar UI to update, and the staged
information for selected paths are reverted to that of the
HEAD version. Reverting new paths makes them untracked.
add untracked
This has a very similar UI to update and revert, and lets you
add untracked paths to the index.
patch
This lets you choose one path out of a status like selection.
After choosing the path, it presents the diff between the
index and the working tree file and asks you if you want to
stage the change of each hunk. You can select one of the
following options and type return:
y - stage this hunk
n - do not stage this hunk
q - quit; do not stage this hunk or any of the remaining ones
a - stage this hunk and all later hunks in the file
d - do not stage this hunk or any of the later hunks in the file
g - select a hunk to go to
/ - search for a hunk matching the given regex
j - leave this hunk undecided, see next undecided hunk
J - leave this hunk undecided, see next hunk
k - leave this hunk undecided, see previous undecided hunk
K - leave this hunk undecided, see previous hunk
s - split the current hunk into smaller hunks
e - manually edit the current hunk
p - print the current hunk
? - print help
After deciding the fate for all hunks, if there is any hunk
that was chosen, the index is updated with the selected hunks.
You can omit having to type return here, by setting the
configuration variable interactive.singleKey to true.
diff
This lets you review what will be committed (i.e. between HEAD
and index).
Invoking git add -e or selecting e from the interactive hunk
selector will open a patch in your editor; after the editor exits,
the result is applied to the index. You are free to make arbitrary
changes to the patch, but note that some changes may have
confusing results, or even result in a patch that cannot be
applied. If you want to abort the operation entirely (i.e., stage
nothing new in the index), simply delete all lines of the patch.
The list below describes some common things you may see in a
patch, and which editing operations make sense on them.
added content
Added content is represented by lines beginning with "+". You
can prevent staging any addition lines by deleting them.
removed content
Removed content is represented by lines beginning with "-".
You can prevent staging their removal by converting the "-" to
a " " (space).
modified content
Modified content is represented by "-" lines (removing the old
content) followed by "+" lines (adding the replacement
content). You can prevent staging the modification by
converting "-" lines to " ", and removing "+" lines. Beware
that modifying only half of the pair is likely to introduce
confusing changes to the index.
There are also more complex operations that can be performed. But
beware that because the patch is applied only to the index and not
the working tree, the working tree will appear to "undo" the
change in the index. For example, introducing a new line into the
index that is in neither the HEAD nor the working tree will stage
the new line for commit, but the line will appear to be reverted
in the working tree.
Avoid using these constructs, or do so with extreme caution.
removing untouched content
Content which does not differ between the index and working
tree may be shown on context lines, beginning with a " "
(space). You can stage context lines for removal by converting
the space to a "-". The resulting working tree file will
appear to re-add the content.
modifying existing content
One can also modify context lines by staging them for removal
(by converting " " to "-") and adding a "+" line with the new
content. Similarly, one can modify "+" lines for existing
additions or modifications. In all cases, the new modification
will appear reverted in the working tree.
new content
You may also add new content that does not exist in the patch;
simply add new lines, each starting with "+". The addition
will appear reverted in the working tree.
There are also several operations which should be avoided
entirely, as they will make the patch impossible to apply:
• adding context (" ") or removal ("-") lines
• deleting context or removal lines
• modifying the contents of context or removal lines
Everything below this line in this section is selectively included
from the git-config(1) documentation. The content is the same as
what’s found there:
add.ignoreErrors, add.ignore-errors (deprecated)
Tells git add to continue adding files when some files cannot
be added due to indexing errors. Equivalent to the
--ignore-errors option. add.ignore-errors is deprecated, as
it does not follow the usual naming convention for
configuration variables.
git-status(1) git-rm(1) git-reset(1) git-mv(1) git-commit(1)
git-update-index(1)
Part of the git(1) suite
This page is part of the git (Git distributed version control
system) project. Information about the project can be found at
⟨http://git-scm.com/⟩. If you have a bug report for this manual
page, see ⟨http://git-scm.com/community⟩. This page was obtained
from the project's upstream Git repository
⟨https://github.com/git/git.git⟩ on 2025-08-11. (At that time,
the date of the most recent commit that was found in the
repository was 2025-08-07.) If you discover any rendering
problems in this HTML version of the page, or you believe there is
a better or more up-to-date source for the page, or you have
corrections or improvements to the information in this COLOPHON
(which is not part of the original manual page), send a mail to
man-pages@man7.org
Git 2.51.0.rc1 2025-08-07 GIT-ADD(1)
Pages that refer to this page: git(1), git-apply(1), git-checkout(1), git-commit(1), git-config(1), git-diff(1), git-merge(1), git-reset(1), git-restore(1), git-rm(1), git-stage(1), git-stash(1), git-update-index(1), giteveryday(7)
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HTML rendering created 2025-09-06 by Michael Kerrisk, author of The Linux Programming Interface. For details of in-depth Linux/UNIX system programming training courses that I teach, look here. Hosting by jambit GmbH. |
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