git add only modified changes and ignore untracked files

I ran "git status" and listed below are some files that were modified/or under the heading "changes not staged for commit". It also listed some untracked files that I want to ignore (I have a ".gitignore" file in these directories).

I want to put the modified files in staging so I can commit them. When I ran "git add .", it added the modified files AND the files I want to ignore to staging.

How do I add only the modified files and ignore the untracked files if presented with the git status below.

Also, are my ".gitignore" files working properly?

$ git status
# On branch addLocation
# Changes not staged for commit:
#   (use "git add <file>..." to update what will be committed)
#   (use "git checkout -- <file>..." to discard changes in working directory)
#
#       modified:   someProject/path/domain/viewer/LocationDO.java
#       modified:   someProject/path/service/ld/LdService.java
#       modified:   someProject/path/service/ld/LdServiceImpl.java
#       modified:   someProject/path/web/jsf/viewer/LocationFormAction.java
#       modified:   someProject/war/WEB-INF/classes/message/viewer/viewer.properties
#       modified:   someProject/war/page/viewer/searchForm.xhtml
#
# Untracked files:
#   (use "git add <file>..." to include in what will be committed)
#
#       .metadata/
#       someProject/build/
no changes added to commit (use "git add" and/or "git commit -a")

Ideally your .gitignore should prevent the untracked (and ignored) files from being shown in status, added using git add etc. So I would ask you to correct your .gitignore

You can do git add -u so that it will stage the modified and deleted files.

You can also do git commit -a to commit only the modified and deleted files.

Note that if you have Git of version before 2.0 and used git add ., then you would need to use git add -u . (See "Difference of “git add -A” and “git add .”").

This worked for me:

#!/bin/bash

git add `git status | grep modified | sed 's/\(.*modified:\s*\)//'`

Or even better:

$ git ls-files --modified | xargs git add

To stage modified and deleted files

git add -u

git commit -a -m "message"

-a : Includes all currently changed/deleted files in this commit. Keep in mind, however, that untracked (new) files are not included.

-m : Sets the commit's message

I happened to try this so I could see the list of files first:

git status | grep "modified:" | awk '{print "git add  " $2}' > file.sh

cat ./file.sh

execute:

chmod a+x file.sh
./file.sh 

Edit: (see comments) This could be achieved in one step:

git status | grep "modified:" | awk '{print $2}' | xargs git add && git status

You didn't say what's currently your .gitignore, but a .gitignore with the following contents in your root directory should do the trick.

.metadata
build

Not sure if this is a feature or a bug but this worked for us:

Note the empty file list ''. Git interprets this to commit all modified tracked files, even if they are not staged, and ignore untracked files.

> I want to put the modified files in staging so I can commit them

TL;DR : START

Use interactive mode (git add -i), select update (type 2 or u in What now> prompt), select all(type * in Update>> prompt), exit interactive mode(type 7 or q in What now> prompt) .

TL;DR : END

For the more patient:---

STEP 1

You could use the interactive mode.

git add --interactive 

or the short-hand form,

git add -i

This will give a list of all modified files along with their status, plus a bunch of command options you could use, like:

           staged     unstaged path
  1:    unchanged       +17/-0 package-lock.json
  2:    unchanged        +2/-0 package.json
  3:    unchanged       +2/-28 src/App.js
  4:    unchanged        +7/-6 src/App.test.js

*** Commands ***
  1: status       2: update       3: revert       4: add untracked
  5: patch        6: diff         7: quit         8: help
What now>

STEP 2

For your case, type u or 2 against What now>,

What now>u

You get below,

           staged     unstaged path
  1:    unchanged       +17/-0 package-lock.json
  2:    unchanged        +2/-0 package.json
  3:    unchanged       +2/-28 src/App.js
  4:    unchanged        +7/-6 src/App.test.js
Update>> *

STEP 3

In the Update>> prompt, type * to add all the files of the above list to the staging area(you could well add individual files too by providing the comma separated numbers),

Update>> *

At this point of time, all of your modified files have been added to the staging area and you can verify the status by typing 1 or s in the What now> prompt(or just exit the interactive mode by typing q or 7 and run the usual git status command),

What now> 1

which will show you the status,

           staged     unstaged path
  1:       +17/-0      nothing package-lock.json
  2:        +2/-0      nothing package.json
  3:       +2/-28      nothing src/App.js
  4:        +7/-6      nothing src/App.test.js

We can see here that the unstaged column displays the text "nothing" for all the files of the list.

For the second part of question regarding ignoring the untracked files, I believe this SO answer will help a lot.

one way to ignore is using git clean -xffd, which will clean the untracked files. then you can use git add -A

git commit -am "your message here" this worked for me