Originally, "git add -N" was introduced to help users from forgetting to
add new files to the index before they ran "git commit -a". As an attempt
to help them further so that they do not forget to say "-a", "git commit"
to commit the index as-is was taught to error out, reminding the user that
they may have forgotten to add the final contents of the paths before
running the command.
This turned out to be a false "safety" that is useless. If the user made
changes to already tracked paths and paths added with "git add -N", and
then ran "git add" to register the final contents of the paths added with
"git add -N", "git commit" will happily create a commit out of the index,
without including the local changes made to the already tracked paths. It
was not a useful "safety" measure to prevent "forgetful" mistakes from
happening.
It turns out that this behaviour is not just a useless false "safety", but
actively hurts use cases of "git add -N" that were discovered later and
have become popular, namely, to tell Git to be aware of these paths added
by "git add -N", so that commands like "git status" and "git diff" would
include them in their output, even though the user is not interested in
including them in the next commit they are going to make.
Fix this ancient UI mistake, and instead make a commit from the index
ignoring the paths added by "git add -N" without adding real contents.
Based on the work by Nguyễn Thái Ngọc Duy, and helped by injection of
sanity from Jonathan Nieder and others on the Git mailing list.
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
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GIT - the stupid content tracker
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"git" can mean anything, depending on your mood.
- random three-letter combination that is pronounceable, and not
actually used by any common UNIX command. The fact that it is a
mispronunciation of "get" may or may not be relevant.
- stupid. contemptible and despicable. simple. Take your pick from the
dictionary of slang.
- "global information tracker": you're in a good mood, and it actually
works for you. Angels sing, and a light suddenly fills the room.
- "goddamn idiotic truckload of sh*t": when it breaks
Git is a fast, scalable, distributed revision control system with an
unusually rich command set that provides both high-level operations
and full access to internals.
Git is an Open Source project covered by the GNU General Public License.
It was originally written by Linus Torvalds with help of a group of
hackers around the net. It is currently maintained by Junio C Hamano.
Please read the file INSTALL for installation instructions.
See Documentation/gittutorial.txt to get started, then see
Documentation/everyday.txt for a useful minimum set of commands, and
Documentation/git-commandname.txt for documentation of each command.
If git has been correctly installed, then the tutorial can also be
read with "man gittutorial" or "git help tutorial", and the
documentation of each command with "man git-commandname" or "git help
commandname".
CVS users may also want to read Documentation/gitcvs-migration.txt
("man gitcvs-migration" or "git help cvs-migration" if git is
installed).
Many Git online resources are accessible from http://git-scm.com/
including full documentation and Git related tools.
The user discussion and development of Git take place on the Git
mailing list -- everyone is welcome to post bug reports, feature
requests, comments and patches to git@vger.kernel.org. To subscribe
to the list, send an email with just "subscribe git" in the body to
majordomo@vger.kernel.org. The mailing list archives are available at
http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=git and other archival sites.
The messages titled "A note from the maintainer", "What's in
git.git (stable)" and "What's cooking in git.git (topics)" and
the discussion following them on the mailing list give a good
reference for project status, development direction and
remaining tasks.
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