Re: [BUG] 'add -u' doesn't work from untracked subdir

[Jeff King <peff@peff.net>]

On Wed, Sep 02, 2009 at 10:03:05AM +0200, SZEDER Gábor wrote:

> As the subject says, 'git add -u' does not work from an untracked
> subdir, because it doesn't add modified files to the index.  The
> following script reproduces the issue:
> 
> mkdir repo
> cd repo
> git init
> echo 1 >foo
> git add foo
> git commit -m first
> echo 2 >foo
> mkdir untracked_subdir
> cd untracked_subdir
> git add -u
> git diff
> 
> It worked in the initial 'git add -u' implementation (dfdac5d, git-add
> -u: match the index with working tree, 2007-04-20), but 2ed2c222
> (git-add -u paths... now works from subdirectory, 2007-08-16) broke it
> later, and is broken ever since.

It is not just untracked subdirs. Try:

  mkdir repo && cd repo && git init
  echo 1 >foo
  mkdir subdir
  echo 1 >subdir/bar
  git add . && git commit -m first
  echo 2 >foo
  echo 2 >subdir/bar
  cd subdir
  git add -u
  git diff ;# still shows foo/1 in index
  git diff --cached ;# shows subdir/bar was updated

While I have sometimes found the behavior a bit annoying[1], I always
assumed that was the intended behavior.

And indeed, in modern builtin-add.c, we find this:

        if ((addremove || take_worktree_changes) && !argc) {
                static const char *here[2] = { ".", NULL };
                argc = 1;
                argv = here;
        }

which seems pretty explicit.

-Peff

[1] I would prefer "git add -u ." to add only the current directory, and
"git add -u" to touch everything. But then, I am one of the people who
turn off status.relativepaths, so I think I may be in the minority in
always wanting to think of the project as a whole.