Re: [FAQ?] Rationale for git's way to manage the index

From: Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net>
Date: May 6, 2007, 17:43 UTC
Message-ID: <7vvef5c0fw.fsf@assigned-by-dhcp.cox.net>
In-Reply-To: <vpqk5vlamav.fsf@bauges.imag.fr>

Matthieu Moy <Matthieu.Moy@imag.fr> writes:

Show 12 quoted lines

> You don't necessarily see your error from the file list:
>
> % vi foo.c
> % git add foo.c
> % vi foo.c
> % git commit -m foo
> [...]
>  create mode 100644 foo.c
> %
>
> This commited the old content of foo.c, while I hardly see any
> scenario where this is the expected behavior.

One reason why is because you are using "-m foo" (a very non-descriptive commit message that would not help anybody including yourself in the future). Try the above without giving such a bogus error message with "-m" to commit, but instead let it spawn your editor --- you would be doing that in real-life when you are doing anything nontrivial. Then notice what appears on the file list of "Changed but not updated" section.

A single liner "-m" is handy for "Oops, typofix in foo.c" kind of commit, but in such a case you literally would be changing only the typofix and won't have "edit foo.c; git add foo.c; edit foo.c; git commit" sequence anyway.

I think Linus explained quite well to correct your doubts in your original message, and I do not have anything to add.