git-rm isn't the inverse action of git-add

Hello

I'm coming from cogito. There you can run:

  cg-add $file ; cg-rm $file

and everything is as before; it adds the file to the directory index/cache, and just removes it again from the latter.

Whereas with git,

  git-add $file; git-rm $file

is giving the error

  error: '..file..' has changes staged in the index (hint: try -f)

And sure enough, git rm -f $file will remove the file from the index, but also unlink it from the directory. (Ok, I did remember that cogito's -f option is unlinking the file, so I was cautious and didn't try it on an important file, but still...)

Turns out that

  git rm  -f --cached $file

will do the same action as cg-rm $file.

Why so complicated? Why not just make git-rm without options behave like cg-rm? (Or at the very least, I'd change the hint to say "try -f --cached".)

Christian.