Re: [PATCH] doc: Modify git-add doc to say "staging area"

From: David A. Wheeler <dwheeler@dwheeler.com>
Date: Dec 13, 2017, 18:46 UTC
Message-ID: <E1ePC33-000710-2u@rmmprod07.runbox>
In-Reply-To: <xmqq8te6y30t.fsf@gitster.mtv.corp.google.com>

On Wed, 13 Dec 2017 09:02:42 -0800, Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> wrote:

Show 7 quoted lines

> .. But that is not the only thing the index does.  When "git merge"
> finds conflicting changes, it adds the contents for common, our and
> their variants to the index for the path.  This is quite different
> from how you use the index "as staging area"; the index is being
> used as the "merging area".  When "git clean" wants to see which
> paths it finds on the filesystem are not of interest, it consults
> the index, which acts as the list of paths that are of interest.

If the phrase "staging area" is consistently used *instead* of index, there's no problem. E.g., "git clean consults the staging area" conveys exactly the same information as "git clean consults the index" when index == staging area.

The term "index" has too many *other* meanings.

--- David A. Wheeler