# git-add --verbose should say when something is already indexed

4 messages from 2008-12-29 to 2008-12-29. Participants: jidanni@jidanni.org, Nanako Shiraishi, Junio C Hamano.
Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/16904

## jidanni@jidanni.org, 2008-12-29 06:46

Subject: git-add --verbose should say when something is already indexed
Message-ID: <87eizr32db.fsf@jidanni.org>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/87eizr32db.fsf%40jidanni.org

```
git-add or at least git-add --verbose should say upon
$ git-add bla.txt
$ git-add bla.txt
bla.txt is already in the index.

The git-add man page should mention how one can see all the files
added, perhaps by git-ls-files. If so mention in SEE ALSO too.

```

## Nanako Shiraishi, 2008-12-29 08:52

Subject: Re: git-add --verbose should say when something is already indexed
Message-ID: <20081229175258.6117@nanako3.lavabit.com>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/20081229175258.6117%40nanako3.lavabit.com
In-Reply-To: <87eizr32db.fsf@jidanni.org>

```
Quoting jidanni@jidanni.org:

> git-add or at least git-add --verbose should say upon
> $ git-add bla.txt
> $ git-add bla.txt
> bla.txt is already in the index.

I do not think it should.

I suspect that you misunderstand what "git add" is. It is not about adding a new path to be tracked. Rather, it is to add the current contents of the file (unless --interactive is used).

You told git to add the contents of "bla.txt" to the index as path "bla.txt". I do not think there is anything more to report after it did exactly what it was told to do.

-- 
Nanako Shiraishi
http://ivory.ap.teacup.com/nanako3/

```

## Junio C Hamano, 2008-12-29 09:02

Subject: Re: git-add --verbose should say when something is already indexed
Message-ID: <7v63l3e4lz.fsf@gitster.siamese.dyndns.org>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/7v63l3e4lz.fsf%40gitster.siamese.dyndns.org
In-Reply-To: <20081229175258.6117@nanako3.lavabit.com>

```
Nanako Shiraishi <nanako3@lavabit.com> writes:

> Quoting jidanni@jidanni.org:
>
>> git-add or at least git-add --verbose should say upon
>> $ git-add bla.txt
>> $ git-add bla.txt
>> bla.txt is already in the index.
>
> I do not think it should.
>
> I suspect that you misunderstand what "git add" is. It is not about adding a new path to be tracked. Rather, it is to add the current contents of the file (unless --interactive is used).
>
> You told git to add the contents of "bla.txt" to the index as path "bla.txt". I do not think there is anything more to report after it did exactly what it was told to do.

That is almost (say, 98%) true, but it is not absolutely outlandishly
unreasonable if somebody wants:

    $ git add bla.txt
    $ edit bla.txt
    $ git add bla.txt

and

    $ git add bla.txt
    $ git add bla.txt

to behave differently.  The latter is a pure no-op.

Having said that, I do not think it is worth it.  For one thing, if you
did:

    $ git add .

after making changes to a few files and created one new file in a project
with 20,000 files, command would say "Yo, bozo, you told me to add the
same contents for path X" for 19,998  times.

If the report were not negative as Jidanni suggests, but instead were
positive, i.e.

    $ git add -v frotz.txt nitfol.txt
    added new contents for frotz.txt
    added new contents for nitfol.txt
    $ edit frotz.txt
    $ git add -v frotz.txt nitfol.txt
    added new contents for frotz.txt

it might be slightly more useful, but I doubt it is that useful in
practice.

I won't reject a patch if it is cleanly done, though.

```

## jidanni@jidanni.org, 2008-12-29 22:55

Subject: Re: git-add --verbose should say when something is already indexed
Message-ID: <874p0m4mmb.fsf@jidanni.org>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/874p0m4mmb.fsf%40jidanni.org
In-Reply-To: <7v63l3e4lz.fsf@gitster.siamese.dyndns.org>

```
DESCRIPTION
       This command adds the current content of new or modified files to the index, thus staging that content for
       inclusion in the next commit.

Maybe also mention that it also adds a new path to be tracked by the
index, if it is not tracked already.

```