What’s the difference between `git add .` and `git add -u`?

by

It is one of the git gotchas mentioned here (pre Git 2.0).

git add . only adds what is there, not what has been deleted (if tracked).

git add .
git commit
git status
//hey! why didn't it commit my deletes?, Oh yeah, silly me
git add -u .
git commit --amend

git add -A would take care of both steps…

With Git 2.0, git add -A is default.

git add <path> is the same as “git add -A <path>” now, so that
“git add dir/” will notice paths you removed from the directory and
record the removal.
In older versions of Git, “git add <path>” used to ignore removals.

You can say “git add --ignore-removal <path>” to
add only added or modified paths in <path>, if you really want to.

Warning (git1.8.3 April 2013, for upcoming git2.0).
I have modified my answer to say git add -u ., instead of git add -u.:

git add -u will operate on the entire tree in Git 2.0 for consistency with “git commit -a” and other commands.
Because there will be no mechanism to make “git add -u” behave as “git add -u .“, it is
important for those who are used to “git add -u” (without pathspec) updating the index only for paths in the current subdirectory to start training their fingers to explicitly say “git add -u .” when they mean it before Git 2.0 comes.

As I mentioned in “e“

More Related Contents:

  1. How do I undo 'git add' before commit?
  2. How can I add a blank directory to a Git repository?
  3. Message ‘src refspec master does not match any’ when pushing commits in Git
  4. Difference between “git add -A” and “git add .”
  5. Undo git reset –hard with uncommitted files in the staging area
  6. Removing multiple files from a Git repo that have already been deleted from disk
  7. git add * (asterisk) vs git add . (period)
  8. Recover files that were added to the index but then removed by a git reset
  9. How do I add an empty directory to a Git repository?
  10. Add all files to a commit except a single file?
  11. Removing multiple files from a Git repo that have already been deleted from disk
  12. Git add only all new files, not modified files [duplicate]
  13. Easy way to pull latest of all git submodules
  14. Viewing unpushed Git commits
  15. Download a specific tag with Git
  16. How to compare files from two different branches
  17. What should be in my .gitignore for an Android Studio project?
  18. How to specify the private SSH-key to use when executing shell command on Git?
  19. Undoing a ‘git push’
  20. Handle git branching for test and production
  21. How to remove a dangling commit from GitHub?
  22. How do I merge changes to a single file, rather than merging commits?
  23. Git add and commit in one command
  24. How do I disable git’s credential helper for a single repository?
  25. Merge changes from remote github repository to your local repository
  26. How to perform better document version control on Excel files and SQL schema files
  27. How can I pass git SHA1 to compiler as definition using cmake?
  28. How do I find the most recent git commit that modified a file?
  29. Git mergetool generates unwanted .orig files
  30. Git merge squash repeatedly

Leave a Comment