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Repair common Windows errors and clear accumulated junk for a smoother, more stable PC - no reinstall needed.Free scan · no reinstallGit’s staging area—also called the index—holds the proposed content for your next commit. git add copies selected content from your working files into that index; later edits do not enter it unless you add them again. A normal git commit records the staged state, not every change currently on disk.
The three Git states to keep separate
To understand staging, distinguish the current commit, the index, and the working tree. They are related snapshots, not three names for the same files.
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| State | What it represents |
|---|---|
HEAD |
The current commit: the version your branch currently points to. |
| Index (staging area) | The proposed content of the next ordinary commit. |
| Working tree | The files in your checkout that you can currently edit. |
The index is not a live view of the working tree. It records the content Git has staged, so it can differ both from the last commit and from the files on disk.
What does git add actually do?
When you run git add path, Git reads the selected file content from the working tree and updates the index with that content. It stages a snapshot; it does not merely mark a file, and it does not create a commit. Running git add again before committing updates the staged snapshot to reflect the content present when that later command runs. See the Git project’s git add documentation.
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The index is a flat list of paths and content entries, not itself a directory tree. Each entry records details such as the file type, object ID, stage number, and path. When Git creates a commit, it converts the index entries into a tree object and records that tree in the commit. The Git data model describes this structure.
Why can a file have staged and unstaged changes at once?
Because Git compares each state with its neighbor, a file can have one version staged and a newer version only in the working tree. For example:
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- A file matches the version in
HEAD. - You edit it and run
git add file.txt. That content is now in the index. - You edit
file.txtagain. The index remains at the version from step 2; the new edit exists only in the working tree. git statuscan show both a staged change and an unstaged change forfile.txt.
The commands inspect different boundaries:
git diffcompares the working tree with the index, showing changes that are not staged.git diff --staged(also calledgit diff --cached) compares the index withHEAD, showing what the next ordinary commit would include.git statussummarizes both comparisons.
In the example, git diff --staged shows the content captured by the first git add against HEAD; git diff shows the later edit against the staged version. These comparisons are also explained in Pro Git’s Reset Demystified and What is Git?.
What does a normal git commit include?
A normal git commit records the index’s staged state. If you make another edit after staging, that later content is not silently included. To include it, add it before committing:
git add file.txt
git commitReview the proposed commit with git diff --staged before you commit. The Git project’s git commit documentation covers the staged commit workflow.
How to stage only part of a file
Use git add -p to review changes in hunks and choose which ones to stage. This lets you put selected edits in the index while leaving other edits in the working tree. Afterward, inspect the two sides separately with git diff --staged and git diff. The git add documentation describes patch mode.
How to stage removals and handle ignored files
git add -Aupdates additions, modifications, and removals for the selected paths in the index.- Ignored files are not added by default. Use
git add -f pathto force an ignored file into the index when that is intentional.
These options are documented in the Git project’s git add reference.
How to unstage without losing working-tree edits
Run git restore --staged path to restore that path’s index version to the version in the last commit. This removes the staged change from the next ordinary commit while leaving the working-tree copy alone. Your edits remain on disk; review them with git diff. The command is covered in the Git commit documentation.
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Two less-common index cases
Intent to add
git add -N path records an index entry indicating that the path is intended to be added later, but it does not add the file content at that time. Treat it differently from staging a normal content snapshot; see the git add reference.
Unresolved merge conflicts
While a merge conflict is unresolved, the index can contain multiple entries for one path at conflict stages 1, 2, and 3. Once you resolve the conflict, stage the resolved file to replace those entries with the chosen content. The Git data model documents index entry stages.
Further reading
Pro Git, 2nd edition by Scott Chacon and Ben Straub is available to read online; the Git site also notes that print versions are available on Amazon.com.
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