git-update-index - Modifies the index or directory cache

git-update-index [--add] [--remove | --force-remove] [--replace] [--refresh [-q] [--unmerged] [--ignore-missing]] [--cacheinfo <mode> <object> <file>]* [--chmod=(+|-)x] [--info-only] [--index-info] [-z] [--stdin] [--verbose] [--] [<file>]*

Modifies the index or directory cache. Each file mentioned is updated into the index and any unmerged or needs updating state is cleared.

The way "git-update-index" handles files it is told about can be modified using the various options:

--add

If a specified file isn't in the index already then it's added. Default behaviour is to ignore new files.

--remove

If a specified file is in the index but is missing then it's removed. Default behaviour is to ignore removed file.

--refresh

Looks at the current index and checks to see if merges or updates are needed by checking stat() information.

-q

Quiet. If --refresh finds that the index needs an update, the default behavior is to error out. This option makes git-update-index continue anyway.

--unmerged

If --refresh finds unmerged changes in the index, the default behavior is to error out. This option makes git-update-index continue anyway.

--ignore-missing

Ignores missing files during a --refresh

--cacheinfo <mode> <object> <path>

Directly insert the specified info into the index.

--index-info

Read index information from stdin.

--chmod=(+|-)x

Set the execute permissions on the updated files.

--info-only

Do not create objects in the object database for all <file> arguments that follow this flag; just insert their object IDs into the index.

--force-remove

Remove the file from the index even when the working directory still has such a file. (Implies --remove.)

--replace

By default, when a file path exists in the index, git-update-index refuses an attempt to add path/file. Similarly if a file path/file exists, a file path cannot be added. With --replace flag, existing entries that conflicts with the entry being added are automatically removed with warning messages.

--stdin

Instead of taking list of paths from the command line, read list of paths from the standard input. Paths are separated by LF (i.e. one path per line) by default.

--verbose

Report what is being added and removed from index.

-z

Only meaningful with --stdin; paths are separated with NUL character instead of LF.

--

Do not interpret any more arguments as options.

<file>

Files to act on. Note that files beginning with . are discarded. This includes ./file and dir/./file. If you don't want this, then use cleaner names. The same applies to directories ending / and paths with //

--refresh does not calculate a new sha1 file or bring the index up-to-date for mode/content changes. But what it does do is to "re-match" the stat information of a file with the index, so that you can refresh the index for a file that hasn't been changed but where the stat entry is out of date.

For example, you'd want to do this after doing a "git-read-tree", to link up the stat index details with the proper files.

--cacheinfo is used to register a file that is not in the current working directory. This is useful for minimum-checkout merging.

To pretend you have a file with mode and sha1 at path, say:

$ git-update-index --cacheinfo mode sha1 path

--info-only is used to register files without placing them in the object database. This is useful for status-only repositories.

Both --cacheinfo and --info-only behave similarly: the index is updated but the object database isn't. --cacheinfo is useful when the object is in the database but the file isn't available locally. --info-only is useful when the file is available, but you do not wish to update the object database.

--index-info is a more powerful mechanism that lets you feed multiple entry definitions from the standard input, and designed specifically for scripts. It can take inputs of three formats:

1.

mode SP sha1 TAB path

The first format is what "git-apply --index-info" reports, and used to reconstruct a partial tree that is used for phony merge base tree when falling back on 3-way merge.

2.

mode SP type SP sha1 TAB path

The second format is to stuff git-ls-tree output into the index file.

3.

mode SP sha1 SP stage TAB path

This format is to put higher order stages into the index file and matches git-ls-files --stage output.

To place a higher stage entry to the index, the path should first be removed by feeding a mode=0 entry for the path, and then feeding necessary input lines in the third format.

For example, starting with this index:

$ git ls-files -s 100644 8a1218a1024a212bb3db30becd860315f9f3ac52 0 frotz

you can feed the following input to --index-info:

$ git update-index --index-info 0 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000 frotz 100644 8a1218a1024a212bb3db30becd860315f9f3ac52 1 frotz 100755 8a1218a1024a212bb3db30becd860315f9f3ac52 2 frotz

The first line of the input feeds 0 as the mode to remove the path; the SHA1 does not matter as long as it is well formatted. Then the second and third line feeds stage 1 and stage 2 entries for that path. After the above, we would end up with this:

$ git ls-files -s 100644 8a1218a1024a212bb3db30becd860315f9f3ac52 1 frotz 100755 8a1218a1024a212bb3db30becd860315f9f3ac52 2 frotz

To update and refresh only the files already checked out:

$ git-checkout-index -n -f -a && git-update-index --ignore-missing --refresh

The command honors core.filemode configuration variable. If your repository is on an filesystem whose executable bits are unreliable, this should be set to false (see git-repo-config(1)). This causes the command to ignore differences in file modes recorded in the index and the file mode on the filesystem if they differ only on executable bit. On such an unfortunate filesystem, you may need to use git-update-index --chmod=.

git-repo-config(1)

Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>

Documentation by David Greaves, Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.

Part of the git(7) suite