tutorial: revise index introduction

The embarassing history of this tutorial is that I started it without
really understanding the index well, so I avoided mentioning it.

And we all got the idea that "index" was a word to avoid using around
newbies, but it was reluctantly mentioned that *something* had to be
said.  The result is a little awkward: the discussion of the index never
actually uses that word, and isn't well-integrated into the surrounding
material.

Let's just go ahead and use the word "index" from the very start, and
try to demonstrate its use with a minimum of lecturing.

Also, remove discussion of using git-commit with explicit filenames.
We're already a bit slow here to get people to their first commit, and
I'm not convinced this is really so important.

Signed-off-by: "J. Bruce Fields" <bfields@citi.umich.edu>
This commit is contained in:
J. Bruce Fields 2007-05-18 00:51:42 -04:00
parent cd50aba918
commit 93f9cc675d

View file

@ -44,42 +44,67 @@ Initialized empty Git repository in .git/
------------------------------------------------
You've now initialized the working directory--you may notice a new
directory created, named ".git". Tell git that you want it to track
every file under the current directory (note the '.') with:
directory created, named ".git".
Next, tell git to take a snapshot of the contents of all files under the
current directory (note the '.'), with gitlink:git-add[1]:
------------------------------------------------
$ git add .
------------------------------------------------
Finally,
This snapshot is now stored in a temporary staging area which git calls
the "index". You can permanently store the contents of the index in the
repository with gitlink:git-commit[1]:
------------------------------------------------
$ git commit
------------------------------------------------
will prompt you for a commit message, then record the current state
of all the files to the repository.
This will prompt you for a commit message. You've now stored the first
version of your project in git.
Making changes
--------------
Try modifying some files, then run
------------------------------------------------
$ git diff
------------------------------------------------
to review your changes. When you're done, tell git that you
want the updated contents of these files in the commit and then
make a commit, like this:
Modify some files, then add their updated contents to the index:
------------------------------------------------
$ git add file1 file2 file3
------------------------------------------------
You are now ready to commit. You can see what is about to be committed
using gitlink:git-diff[1] with the --cached option:
------------------------------------------------
$ git diff --cached
------------------------------------------------
(Without --cached, gitlink:git-diff[1] will show you any changes that
you've made but not yet added to the index.) You can also get a brief
summary of the situation with gitlink:git-status[1]:
------------------------------------------------
$ git status
# On branch master
# Changes to be committed:
# (use "git reset HEAD <file>..." to unstage)
#
# modified: file1
# modified: file2
# modified: file3
#
------------------------------------------------
If you need to make any further adjustments, do so now, and then add any
newly modified content to the index. Finally, commit your changes with:
------------------------------------------------
$ git commit
------------------------------------------------
This will again prompt your for a message describing the change, and then
record the new versions of the files you listed.
record a new version of the project.
Alternatively, instead of running `git add` beforehand, you can use
@ -87,7 +112,8 @@ Alternatively, instead of running `git add` beforehand, you can use
$ git commit -a
------------------------------------------------
which will automatically notice modified (but not new) files.
which will automatically notice any modified (but not new) files, add
them to the index, and commit, all in one step.
A note on commit messages: Though not required, it's a good idea to
begin the commit message with a single short (less than 50 character)
@ -96,45 +122,15 @@ thorough description. Tools that turn commits into email, for
example, use the first line on the Subject: line and the rest of the
commit in the body.
Git tracks content not files
----------------------------
With git you have to explicitly "add" all the changed _content_ 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
next 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. This is because git tracks
content, so what you're really 'adding' to the commit is the *content*
of the file in the state it is in when you 'add' it.
2) By using 'git commit -a' directly
This is a quick way to automatically 'add' the content from all files
that were modified since the previous commit, and perform the actual
commit without having to separately 'add' them beforehand. This will
not add content from new files i.e. files that were never added before.
Those files still have to be added explicitly before performing a
commit.
But 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 though.
However, for normal usage you only have to remember 'git add' + 'git commit'
and/or 'git commit -a'.
Many revision control systems provide an "add" command that tells the
system to start tracking changes to a new file. Git's "add" command
does something simpler and more powerful: `git add` is used both for new
and newly modified files, and in both cases it takes a snapshot of the
given files and stages that content in the index, ready for inclusion in
the next commit.
Viewing the changelog
---------------------