git commit problems

Question

I just commited my working tree, added to index first, with "$git commit -m 'test'" I saved the stdout-put from this to a file and I see at the top of it that it says

# On branch master  
# Changed but not updated:  
# (use "git add/rm ..." to update what will be commited)  
# (use "git checkout -- ..." to discard changes in working directory)"

the problem is that my working tree is not being commited to the repo, and I have a feeling this has something to do with it

thanks

Answer 1

Before you commit a change, you must add it to the index first:

git add myfile
git commit -m "test"

Alternatively, you can work in a more SVN-like style and commit everything that is changed:

git commit -a -m "test"

Or you can just add-and-commit a single file:

git commit myfile -m "test"

Answer 2

You really have to read the documentation.

git add yourfile
git commit -m "test"

Or, to commit all changed files --

git commit -a -m "test"

Answer 3

Did you do a git add . before you committed?

It's always wise to do a git status before either git add or git commit to see what's changed and staged, as well.

It's also very handy to do git diff to see the specific changes you are about to commit.

Here's what git status shows if you have added a file and then renamed it.

me@home:~$ git status
# On branch master
# Changes to be committed:
#   (use "git reset HEAD <file>..." to unstage)
#
#   new file:   foo.txt
#
# Changed but not updated:
#   (use "git add/rm <file>..." to update what will be committed)
#   (use "git checkout -- <file>..." to discard changes in working directory)
#
#   deleted:    foo.txt
#
# Untracked files:
#   (use "git add <file>..." to include in what will be committed)
#
#   bar.txt

At this point you can just do git add . and then git status will give you more information, perhaps pointing out that you still have a new file and a deleted file called foo.txt. To fix this you need to manually git rm foo.txt before doing git commit`

In the future if you have files in a git repo that you want to move you should use git mv.

Answer 4

One other thing to note, git add adds the content of those files to the index at the time when you run it. If you run git add and then change the files, the new changes will not show up in the index.

Answer 5

If you move files around and use git add afterwards, git only adds the new copy, but doesn't remove the old one:

$ git status
# On branch master
nothing to commit (working directory clean)
$ mv from to
$ git add .
$ git status
# On branch master
# Changes to be committed:
#   (use "git reset HEAD <file>..." to unstage)
#
#   new file:   to
#
# Changed but not updated:
#   (use "git add/rm <file>..." to update what will be committed)
#   (use "git checkout -- <file>..." to discard changes in working directory)
#
#   deleted:    from
#
$ git commit -m "..."
$ git status
# On branch master
# Changed but not updated:
#   (use "git add/rm <file>..." to update what will be committed)
#   (use "git checkout -- <file>..." to discard changes in working directory)
#
#   deleted:    from
#
no changes added to commit (use "git add" and/or "git commit -a")

To remove the old copies you should also use git rm:

$ git rm from
rm 'from'
$ git commit -m "..."
$ git status
# On branch master
nothing to commit (working directory clean)

But I don't see why it doesn't allow you to commit those changes.