What is the Git Staging area (or index)? The Proposed next commit

What is the Git Staging area (or index)? The Proposed next commit

About

The staging area is a tree file called index that stores information to create the next commit.

The index is like a pre-commit.

The index holds a snapshot of the content of the working tree.

You must use the add command to add any new or modified files to the index (ie staging area)

Command

Location

  • By default, the .git/index file
  • or the GIT_INDEX_FILE environment variable

Add (Staging)

Reset (Unstaging/Delete)

Git reset will revert the head to the last commit state. 

git reset --hard

HEAD is now at xxxx commit

Print

git cat-file -p master^{tree}

Git - cat-file

List the files

For the next commit (staged)

git diff-index HEAD

In the index

To list the files the contents of the index with the stage information:

  • The mode of the file
  • The id of the object,
  • The stage of the file (in next commit or not)
  • and the pathname of the file
git ls-files --stage

100644 70e413f03019cd301ebb955a3cc4d1ce9cad3cba 0       .gitattributes
100644 28a0ee7ed92f8962153865cf3eebf44e14c5c70e 0       .gitignore
100644 652381035ef9a14fdfb0e138ea33f2b777f1d06e 0       README.md
100644 7796e9eaf8ba750963df16029fd043b1905cbadc 0       conf/local.php
100644 cab897e88d877554458012df4447ea35f05dfb35 0       media/android-chrome-192x192.png
100644 6a4da3d8a25a9ba97b72d609c23ccc9fa8de43c4 0       media/android-chrome-512x512.png

To add file system information (modified date, …), add the debug option. 

git ls-files --debug

100644 3eb4c7064f05a84ba975d45065b51114bcffef29 0       pages/slot_header.txt
  ctime: 1681850743:763163236
  mtime: 1681850743:763163236
  dev: 2049     ino: 155378090
  uid: 1002     gid: 1001
  size: 557     flags: 0

Commit

Restore

git restore to restore a file to the last state

Remove

With rm:

  • Remove a file from staging
git rm --cached path/to/file
  • Remove all files from staging area
git rm --cached -r .

where:

  • --cached remove the paths from staging and the index without removing the files themselves
  • -r operates on directories recursively.




Discover More
Git

is a content-addressable file system used to track directory tree content (as defined by its creator Linux Torvald) It's not a version control...
Git - Add command (Staging) - Add a change to the next commit

Add file contents to the staging area (known also as the index). This statement will add all files and any new untracked files.
Git - Database

The git core database is a key store value where a key value entry is known as an object. (All data in Git are objects) The database is mostly composed: of tree of object ... and commit...
Git - End Of Line

This page is talking the EOL characters management in git. In the .gitattributes file One file All files with .txt extension exclusion If you...
Git - File (Blob)

File management in Git (blob and not directory) blob object on the local file system or not (ie in the git file system database) See and short status A file (or blob) identifier is the...
Git - Git (executable|command line)

The git executable where: --git-dir is the location of the repository files --work-tree is the location of the work tree Command Description add Add file contents to the index add--interactive...
Git - Index (proposed next commit)

see
Git - Reset (Unstaging) - Delete a change for the next commit

reset Delete a file from the staging area (files to be commited)
How to perform a text file diff in Git?

This page is text file diff in Git Diff between the head commit of the current branch (HEAD) and the current file not yet committed (in the working area) Between the head of the main branch...
Branches Git
What is a Git Branch ?

This page talks Branch management in Git. For Git, a branch is: a commit name (ref) that points to the last commit (head) leaf in the commit log (or log) that represents a commit chain Example...



Share this page:
Follow us:
Task Runner