git add Command

Git Basic Operations

The git add command adds the file to the staging area.

Add one or more files to the staging area:

git add [file1] [file2] ...

Add a specified directory to the staging area, including subdirectories:

git add [dir]

Add all files in the current directory to the staging area:

git add .

The following example adds two files:

$ touch README                # Create file
$ touch hello.php             # Create file
$ ls
README        hello.php
$ git status -s
?? README
?? hello.php
$

The git status command is used to view the current status of the project.

Next, we execute the git add command to add files:

$ git add README hello.php

Now, if we execute git status again, we can see that these two files have been added.

$ git status -s
A  README
A  hello.php
$

In new projects, it is common to add all files, which we can do with the git add . command to add all files in the current project.

Now, let's modify the README file:

$ vim README

Add the following content to README: # tutorialpro Git Test, then save and exit.

Execute git status again:

$ git status -s
AM README
A  hello.php

The AM status means the file has been modified after it was added to the cache. After modifying, we execute the git add . command to add it to the cache:

$ git add .
$ git status -s
A  README
A  hello.php

After modifying a file, we usually need to perform a git add operation to save the historical version.

Git Basic Operations