Re: Git add documentation error

From: Philip Oakley <philipoakley@iee.email>
Date: Oct 27, 2022, 15:10 UTC
Message-ID: <b0008377-2cb5-72ff-e94b-8182065b3436@iee.email>
In-Reply-To: <CAB9Jk9Ay2PPEYKve3DXVmG__yZjO1mgh1MxaKA+wfsF0ZvKRqA@mail.gmail.com>

Hi, On 27/10/2022 12:53, Angelo Borsotti wrote:

Show 5 quoted lines

> Hello,
>
> the reference manual for the "git add" command does not
> specify what that command does when applied to an
> unmodified file.

I presume that this file is already tracked..

> By testing this, I have seen that it does not add the file
> to the index,

How was this tested?

If you have no changes, thaen the status diff will have no mention of that file. Perhaps change the tracked mode bits to see if that is noticed (note though, not all mode bits are tracked..)

> and consequently it does not add it when a
> subsequent commit is done.

I suspect this is a subtle mental model misunderstanding about the distinction between a commit as a snapshot, and a commit being reported as the diff relative to its parent (and here, there is none, if the file is unmodified)

> I think that this should be documented.

A test script with sample output would help here. -- Philip