Git file stages

To track files and folders you have to add them to the Git repo as an initial version, so for Git files there are 4 states for any file or folder:

• Untracked
• Staged
• Modified
• Committed

Untracked

Untracked files are the files in the same Git repo but the git repo doesn't track them, there are two ways to do so:

• By don't add it to the repo.
• Or by intentionally un-track these files by adding them to a file called .gitignore You can know what is the tracked and untracked file by running:

$git status

Staged

When you want to add files to be tracked by Git or if the files are already tracked but you edited them (Modified them) you have to add them again to the Git repo, you can add files one by one by:

$git add [file]

or you can add all files in the current directory by

$git add *

To list the staged files and folders by

$git diff --staged

To reset the staged files but keep them as modified

$git reset [file]

where [file] is the file you want to reset.

Modified

When you edit a file that is already tracked by Git its status is changed to be modified (M), so the Git repo notices a change in the file but you did not add it to the repo yet, so you can list the Modified files by:

$git status

Or you list only the change that happened to the files

$git diff

Committed

Committed is the last stage for the files in the Git repo which is saving the changed files locally in the local Git repo, you can commit the stages files and folders to the current local repository by:

$git commit -m "A commit message"

The commit message is a description of the edit you have made to the files and folders, and you can list all commit messages by:

$git log

We will discuss the best way to write the commit message in the comming topics so stay tuned