Staging in Git (original) (raw)

Last Updated : 7 May, 2026

In git the staging area (also called the index) is an intermediate space where changes are gathered before they are committed. Think of it as a draft board: you can organize and review what changes you want to include in the next commit. The staging area allows you to:

Selectively choose changes to commit.
Break down large changes into smaller, logical commits.
Review your work before finalizing it in the repository.

Git Staging Workflow

**Working Directory: Contains your local files and changes (untracked or modified).
**git add: Moves selected changes from Working Directory to Staging Area for preparation.
**Staging Area: Holds files ready to be committed (also called index).
**git commit: Saves the staged changes as a snapshot to the Repository.
**Repository: Stores the full history of committed changes (local Git repo).

Staging

Workflow

Basic Staging Commands

**1. Staging All Changes

To stage all modified files in your working directory, use:

git add .

Alternatively, you can use:

git add -A

This adds all changes, including new, modified, and deleted files.

2. Staging Changes in a File

Let’s say we edit a.txt and run:

git status

Changes appearing in green indicate the file is staged but not yet committed.
Changes appearing in red are not staged yet.

Example:

You write "hello" in a.txt and stage it using git add ..
Then you add "bhailogs" but don’t stage it. Running git status shows "bhailogs" in red, indicating unstaged changes.

3. Unstage a File

To remove a file from the staging area, use:

git reset file_name

Example:

You staged b.txt but now want to unstage it:

git reset b.txt

The file remains in your working directory but is removed from staging.

4. Staging Changes by Hunk

Sometimes you want to stage only parts of a file. Git allows hunk-level staging:

git add -p

This opens an interactive prompt for each hunk (block of changes) in the file:

Stages of Hunk	Action Performed
y	Stage this hunk for the next commit
n	do not stage this hunk for the next commit
q	quit; do not stage this hunk or any of the commits
a	stage this hunk and all later hunks in the file
d	do not stage this hunk or any of the later hunks in the file
e	manually edit the current hunk
?	print hunk help

This is useful when you want to commit only specific changes while leaving other changes unstaged.

5. Interactive Add

Git also provides an interactive staging interface:

git add -i

This interface breaks down the output into staged and unstaged changes. You can perform various actions:

**status: Shows the current state of files.
**update: Stage modified files.
**revert: Revert changes back to HEAD.
**add untracked: Stage untracked files.
**patch: Stage individual hunks interactively.
**diff: Shows changes to be committed.
**quit: Exit the interactive interface.
**help: Displays help for interactive commands.

Staging Specific Cases

1. Stage a Single File

git add file_name

**Example:

git add b.txt

2. Stage Deleted Files

To remove a file permanently from Git:

git rm -f file_name

To remove a file from Git without deleting it from disk:

git rm --cached file_name

**Example:

You create r.txt, stage it, and then remove it using --cached. The file is removed from staging but remains in your working directory as untracked. You can stage it again using:

git add r.txt