Git Tutorial: Committing Files

After you made changes to the file, then you can check back in (commit your changes). To commit, cd to the working dir, then do:

# commit one file
git add myFile.py
git commit myFile.py -m "summary of what you changed."

Any file you want to commit, you must first git add, even if the file already exists in the repository.

The add command basically means add it to the “index” file for next commit. This “index” file is also called “staging area” or “cache”.

When you commit, git commits the “index” to your local repository.

More examples of commit:

# commit several files
git add file1 file2
git commit . -m "summary of what you changed."

# commit all files whose name ends in “py”
git add *py
git commit . -m "summary of what you changed."

# commiting all files in current dir, including new or deleted file/dir
git add -A .
git commit . -m "summary of what you changed."

The -A option will include any new files in your dir, or files you removed. Basically, it'll commit your working dir as is to the repository.

Use the command add, then commit.

git add myFile.py               # add a new file
git commit myFile.py -m "summary of what you changed."

Use the rm command, then commit. The rm command is like add, in the sense that both changes the staging area.

git rm file name
git commit file name -m"summary of change."

git rm -r dir name
git commit dir name -m"summary of change."

git will delete the files/dir for you.

If you already deleted the files, you can still call git rm to update the staging area, then do a commit.

A better way is simply delete files/dir you don't want in the normal way (using normal bash shell or Operating System GUI), then use the option -A in git add:

# commiting all files in current dir, including new or deleted file/dir
git add -A .
git commit . -m "summary of what you changed."

git push repository address

This will push your local repository to the remote git server.

Ususually, you use git remote add to associate a name to ther remote server address. Then, you can just push using a name. Like this:

# cd to your project dir
cd ~/git/xah_emacs_init/

# associate a name to a remote server, for the git project of current dir
git remote add github https://github.com/xahlee/xah_emacs_init.git

# push code to the server associated with the name “github”
git push github