user-manual: fix introduction to packfiles

[git.git] / Documentation / git-add.txt

diff --git a/Documentation/git-add.txt b/Documentation/git-add.txt
index a0c9f68580594f785aaec0472ca8404701d4d86d..2fe73555559d5a31a7122c9e5ebb039db9428dbc 100644 (file)
--- a/Documentation/git-add.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-add.txt
@@ -3,32 +3,39 @@ git-add(1)
 
 NAME
 ----
-git-add - Add file contents to the changeset to be committed next
+git-add - Add file contents to the index
 
 SYNOPSIS
 --------
-'git-add' [-n] [-v] [-f] [--interactive | -i] [-u] [--] <file>...
+[verse]
+'git-add' [-n] [-v] [-f] [--interactive | -i] [-u] [--refresh]
+          [--] <filepattern>...
 
 DESCRIPTION
 -----------
-All the changed file contents to be committed together in a single set
-of changes must be "added" with the 'add' command before using the
-'commit' command.  This is not only for adding new files.  Even modified
-files must be added to the set of changes about to be committed.
-
-This command can be performed multiple times before a commit. The added
-content corresponds to the state of specified file(s) at the time the
-'add' command is used. This means the 'commit' command will not consider
-subsequent changes to already added content if it is not added again before
-the commit.
-
-The 'git status' command can be used to obtain a summary of what is included
-for the next commit.
-
-This command can be used to add ignored files with `-f` (force)
-option, but they have to be
-explicitly and exactly specified from the command line.  File globbing
-and recursive behaviour do not add ignored files.
+This command adds the current content of new or modified files to the
+index, thus staging that content for inclusion in the next commit.
+
+The "index" holds a snapshot of the content of the working tree, and it
+is this snapshot that is taken as the contents of the next commit.  Thus
+after making any changes to the working directory, and before running
+the commit command, you must use the 'add' command to add any new or
+modified files to the index.
+
+This command can be performed multiple times before a commit.  It only
+adds the content of the specified file(s) at the time the add command is
+run; if you want subsequent changes included in the next commit, then
+you must run 'git add' again to add the new content to the index.
+
+The 'git status' command can be used to obtain a summary of which
+files have changes that are staged for the next commit.
+
+The 'git add' command will not add ignored files by default.  If any
+ignored files were explicitly specified on the command line, 'git add'
+will fail with a list of ignored files.  Ignored files reached by
+directory recursion or filename globbing performed by Git (quote your
+globs before the shell) will be silently ignored.  The 'add' command can
+be used to add ignored files with the `-f` (force) option.
 
 Please see gitlink:git-commit[1] for alternative ways to add content to a
 commit.
@@ -36,7 +43,7 @@ commit.
 
 OPTIONS
 -------
-<file>...::
+<filepattern>...::
        Files to add content from.  Fileglobs (e.g. `*.c`) can
        be given to add all matching files.  Also a
        leading directory name (e.g. `dir` to add `dir/file1`
@@ -63,6 +70,10 @@ OPTIONS
        command line. If no paths are specified, all tracked files are
        updated.
 
+\--refresh::
+       Don't add the file(s), but only refresh their stat()
+       information in the index.
+
 \--::
        This option can be used to separate command-line options from
        the list of files, (useful when filenames might be mistaken
@@ -228,4 +239,3 @@ Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.
 GIT
 ---
 Part of the gitlink:git[7] suite
-