Understanding git commit

[macnab]

I currently have 3 files in the folder that are "stored" at the project at git. (Not fgdata.)
I'm running git bash for Windows. 1.81.1.mysys.git.1

To commit, I can use (I presume the -a means all changed)

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git commit -a <comment>

It shows which files have changed, in Technicolor, but trying to type the comment has no effect. Nothing happens, all I have is a square flashing cursor at the top of the window.

With the following (I presume -m means manual mode)

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git commit -m <comment>

I must first use

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git add <file> ..

This could be a pain if I had 700 changed files.

Any help is appreciated.

[Hooray]

Comments are added at the commit-level, not when you are adding files.

Use "git add filename.nas file2.nas file3.nas etc" to add files that are to be committed - you can also use wildcards, like for example: git add *.nas
Use git commit -m "message" to commit added changes using the message you specified.
For files that are already known to git (in the index), you can also use git commit -a -m "message" which tracks all KNOWN files that were changed and commits those using the message that you specified.

In case of doubt, use git help or git help add, git help commit etc

[Philosopher]

The Git commit command accepts two important flags:

• -a: This commits all changes you have made. When you type in «git status», there are staged and unstaged changes. Without the -a flag, a commit will only commit the staged changes, but with it the unstaged changes will be staged and committed.
• -m "message": This is just a shortcut to type in a message (instead of using vim or such).

I typically use -a, but sometimes I am working in a parallel fashion and I might only want to commit changes to, say, the debugging macros. I stage those changes and leave the -a flag out of the commit. But if I have just made changes to one thing, I instead use the -a flag since they (usually) are still unstaged. Note that the -a flag, while similar to «git add -A» (-A for all files) but it will not add files that are not tracked by git and instead will only affect changes to files.

[Hooray]

windows folks should have a look at one of the GUI frontends for git, such as TortoiseGit - or just use an IDE like Eclipse/NetBeans that has integrated git support - a more lightweight option would be a TextEditor that has git support.

[macnab]

windows folks should have a look at one of the GUI frontends for git, such as TortoiseGit

It still doesn't help if I don't know what I am doing!!!

The way I understand it, so far:
I have 2 files bbb.ff and gg.xx which I have committed and pushed.

I add a file aa.ddd, which I have never committed before. So I use

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git add "aa.ddd"

I edit bbb.ff. Now I want to commit all the changes, with a comment. What are my git commands?

EDIT:

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git add "*.*"

seems to stage all changed files. Does it stage unchanged files, so they also (unnecessarily) get committed?

[Philosopher]

Two options:

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git add bbb.ff
git commit -m "Message here"

Or:

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git commit -a -m "Message"

Since you already have the new file added in Git, you can use -a (second example) to pick up the changes to bbb.ff -- or you could manually add it using git add (first example). Also, if you leave out the -m "Message" part you will get an editor like vim that you can type your message into (if you don't know how to use vim: press "i", type out your message, hit escape, and type ":wq" <enter> to commit or ":q!" <enter> to cancel the commit).

[Gijs]

Run gitk for a visual representation of the commits. This can help a lot to understand what you're doing/did. And it prevents silly mistakes

[macnab]

Got it now. Thanks.