From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.0 (2014-02-07) on dcvr.yhbt.net X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-ASN: AS31976 209.132.180.0/23 X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.7 required=3.0 tests=AWL,BAYES_00,DKIM_SIGNED, DKIM_VALID,DKIM_VALID_AU,HEADER_FROM_DIFFERENT_DOMAINS,RCVD_IN_DNSWL_HI, T_RP_MATCHES_RCVD shortcircuit=no autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.0 Received: from vger.kernel.org (vger.kernel.org [209.132.180.67]) by dcvr.yhbt.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9D9CE1F407 for ; Wed, 13 Dec 2017 17:02:47 +0000 (UTC) Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1753507AbdLMRCp (ORCPT ); Wed, 13 Dec 2017 12:02:45 -0500 Received: from pb-smtp1.pobox.com ([64.147.108.70]:56967 "EHLO sasl.smtp.pobox.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-FAIL) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1753356AbdLMRCo (ORCPT ); Wed, 13 Dec 2017 12:02:44 -0500 Received: from sasl.smtp.pobox.com (unknown [127.0.0.1]) by pb-smtp1.pobox.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1E25AB5082; Wed, 13 Dec 2017 12:02:44 -0500 (EST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha1; c=relaxed; d=pobox.com; h=from:to:cc :subject:references:date:in-reply-to:message-id:mime-version :content-type; s=sasl; bh=uuobU35DIF2KmI8TUat2IS44TWY=; b=L54az+ hpYeE+qu9NWCtWUnPTYJCvTNbLrwQeGxAqPS4mglYiY15dGKX8Xv1G7Whv8S3s+D GDeyYPNbCIznhvW4U56/0x58wW2WFxNTnVDEezk2XXqTjnWBXvNSic1kgR4gLYty EHYjQMQMHXTyAaELIAVjFfQ5x2UGYXhwwjD40= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=pobox.com; h=from:to:cc :subject:references:date:in-reply-to:message-id:mime-version :content-type; q=dns; s=sasl; b=j2kiVEon6A5WrBqP4Ys0JUlzKAQXx3Tt cpT5e2peR5TJgzole/SDF9Xp8mNA2JJ046ryisVRk38fMKpz7khwBskyE3Piyok+ U4Mr3gx008pd2rIfQvR8fGtl6wyb0jI2h3U0TCyUTzScEzZqu/3/9rQVXjk9MVx3 SLfHfTZi5eU= Received: from pb-smtp1.nyi.icgroup.com (unknown [127.0.0.1]) by pb-smtp1.pobox.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 17231B5081; Wed, 13 Dec 2017 12:02:44 -0500 (EST) Received: from pobox.com (unknown [104.132.0.95]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES128-SHA (128/128 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by pb-smtp1.pobox.com (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id 85C66B5080; Wed, 13 Dec 2017 12:02:43 -0500 (EST) From: Junio C Hamano To: Jacob Keller Cc: "David A. Wheeler" , git Subject: Re: [PATCH] doc: Modify git-add doc to say "staging area" References: Date: Wed, 13 Dec 2017 09:02:42 -0800 In-Reply-To: (Jacob Keller's message of "Tue, 12 Dec 2017 21:40:12 -0800") Message-ID: User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/25.2.50 (gnu/linux) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain X-Pobox-Relay-ID: 6F6991FE-E027-11E7-8506-8EF31968708C-77302942!pb-smtp1.pobox.com Sender: git-owner@vger.kernel.org Precedence: bulk List-ID: X-Mailing-List: git@vger.kernel.org Jacob Keller writes: > I know we've used various terms for this concept across a lot of the > documentation. However, I was under the impression that we most > explicitly used "index" rather than "staging area". > > Additionally, I think there are many other locations which > consistently use "index" as the term already. Another reason why we would want to standardize in the other direction is because "X acts as Y" does not mean "X is Y". It is true that we (and also "newbie friendly" tutorials) often explain the index like so: "When working towards the next commit, you improve the contents a bit in the working tree, you 'git add' it to the index to make the contents of the index closer to what you want to have the next commit. The index works like the staging area." But that is not the only thing the index does. When "git merge" finds conflicting changes, it adds the contents for common, our and their variants to the index for the path. This is quite different from how you use the index "as staging area"; the index is being used as the "merging area". When "git clean" wants to see which paths it finds on the filesystem are not of interest, it consults the index, which acts as the list of paths that are of interest.