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Sebastian Key
Courses Plus Student 6,410 PointsWhy was the -a flag needed?
Why does he use the -a flag, when he had already staged README.md and there are no other files that need to be staged?
Cheers,
Seb
2 Answers
Jason Anders
Treehouse Moderator 145,858 PointsI interpreted it as just a good habit to get into. Kind of like hitting 'save all' when working in Photoshop or Text Editors... just in case there was something you were working on that you forgot you changed.
Sean T. Unwin
28,690 Pointsgit add will add files to the index (the list of files being tracked for the repository). This does not add files to the commit, it only adds to the list of files which are able to be committed.
git commit -a will include all (that's what the 'a' stands for) files in the index (the files being tracked) to the commit. This will include any modified files in the index as well as remove any files which have been deleted from the index.
Sebastian Key
Courses Plus Student 6,410 PointsThanks for your reply Sean!
To me it just seems unnecessary in this particular scenario, as he has already staged README.MD, would I be right in assuming that the "-a" flag was not necessary in this scenario, but more so good practice?
I've read up on the difference between "git commit" & "git commit -a"
"git commit -A" Ensures even file deletions are included. By 'Included' does that mean, the deleted files are included in the repository?
Cheers :) Seb