GIT-UPDATE-INDEX(1)                                        GIT-UPDATE-INDEX(1)



NAME
       git-update-index - Register file contents in the working tree to the
       index

SYNOPSIS
       git update-index
                    [--add] [--remove | --force-remove] [--replace]
                    [--refresh] [-q] [--unmerged] [--ignore-missing]
                    [(--cacheinfo <mode> <object> <file>)...]
                    [--chmod=(+|-)x]
                    [--assume-unchanged | --no-assume-unchanged]
                    [--skip-worktree | --no-skip-worktree]
                    [--ignore-submodules]
                    [--really-refresh] [--unresolve] [--again | -g]
                    [--info-only] [--index-info]
                    [-z] [--stdin]
                    [--verbose]
                    [--] [<file>...]





DESCRIPTION
       Modifies the index or directory cache. Each file mentioned is updated
       into the index and any unmerged or needs updating state is cleared.


       See also git-add(1) for a more user-friendly way to do some of the most
       common operations on the index.


       The way git update-index handles files it is told about can be modified
       using the various options:


OPTIONS
       --add  If a specified file isn&#8217;t in the index already then
              it&#8217;s added. Default behaviour is to ignore new files.


       --remove
              If a specified file is in the index but is missing then
              it&#8217;s removed. Default behavior is to ignore removed file.


       --refresh
              Looks at the current index and checks to see if merges or
              updates are needed by checking stat() information.


       -q     Quiet. If --refresh finds that the index needs an update, the
              default behavior is to error out. This option makes git
              update-index continue anyway.


       --ignore-submodules
              Do not try to update submodules. This option is only respected
              when passed before --refresh.


       --unmerged
              If --refresh finds unmerged changes in the index, the default
              behavior is to error out. This option makes git update-index
              continue anyway.


       --ignore-missing
              Ignores missing files during a --refresh


       --cacheinfo <mode> <object> <path>
              Directly insert the specified info into the index.


       --index-info
              Read index information from stdin.


       --chmod=(+|-)x
              Set the execute permissions on the updated files.


       --assume-unchanged, --no-assume-unchanged
              When these flags are specified, the object names recorded for
              the paths are not updated. Instead, these options set and unset
              the "assume unchanged" bit for the paths. When the "assume
              unchanged" bit is on, git stops checking the working tree files
              for possible modifications, so you need to manually unset the
              bit to tell git when you change the working tree file. This is
              sometimes helpful when working with a big project on a
              filesystem that has very slow lstat(2) system call (e.g. cifs).

              This option can be also used as a coarse file-level mechanism to
              ignore uncommitted changes in tracked files (akin to what
              .gitignore does for untracked files). Git will fail (gracefully)
              in case it needs to modify this file in the index e.g. when
              merging in a commit; thus, in case the assumed-untracked file is
              changed upstream, you will need to handle the situation
              manually.


       --really-refresh
              Like --refresh, but checks stat information unconditionally,
              without regard to the "assume unchanged" setting.


       --skip-worktree, --no-skip-worktree
              When one of these flags is specified, the object name recorded
              for the paths are not updated. Instead, these options set and
              unset the "skip-worktree" bit for the paths. See section
              "Skip-worktree bit" below for more information.


       -g, --again
              Runs git update-index itself on the paths whose index entries
              are different from those from the HEAD commit.


       --unresolve
              Restores the unmerged or needs updating state of a file during a
              merge if it was cleared by accident.


       --info-only
              Do not create objects in the object database for all <file>
              arguments that follow this flag; just insert their object IDs
              into the index.


       --force-remove
              Remove the file from the index even when the working directory
              still has such a file. (Implies --remove.)


       --replace
              By default, when a file path exists in the index, git
              update-index refuses an attempt to add path/file. Similarly if a
              file path/file exists, a file path cannot be added. With
              --replace flag, existing entries that conflict with the entry
              being added are automatically removed with warning messages.


       --stdin
              Instead of taking list of paths from the command line, read list
              of paths from the standard input. Paths are separated by LF
              (i.e. one path per line) by default.


       --verbose
              Report what is being added and removed from index.


       -z     Only meaningful with --stdin or --index-info; paths are
              separated with NUL character instead of LF.


       --     Do not interpret any more arguments as options.


       <file> Files to act on. Note that files beginning with . are discarded.
              This includes ./file and dir/./file. If you don&#8217;t want
              this, then use cleaner names. The same applies to directories
              ending / and paths with //


USING --REFRESH
       --refresh does not calculate a new sha1 file or bring the index
       up-to-date for mode/content changes. But what it does do is to
       "re-match" the stat information of a file with the index, so that you
       can refresh the index for a file that hasn&#8217;t been changed but
       where the stat entry is out of date.


       For example, you&#8217;d want to do this after doing a git read-tree,
       to link up the stat index details with the proper files.


USING --CACHEINFO OR --INFO-ONLY
       --cacheinfo is used to register a file that is not in the current
       working directory. This is useful for minimum-checkout merging.


       To pretend you have a file with mode and sha1 at path, say:

       $ git update-index --cacheinfo mode sha1 path





       --info-only is used to register files without placing them in the
       object database. This is useful for status-only repositories.


       Both --cacheinfo and --info-only behave similarly: the index is updated
       but the object database isn&#8217;t. --cacheinfo is useful when the
       object is in the database but the file isn&#8217;t available locally.
       --info-only is useful when the file is available, but you do not wish
       to update the object database.


USING --INDEX-INFO
       --index-info is a more powerful mechanism that lets you feed multiple
       entry definitions from the standard input, and designed specifically
       for scripts. It can take inputs of three formats:


       1. mode SP sha1 TAB path

          The first format is what "git-apply --index-info" reports, and used
          to reconstruct a partial tree that is used for phony merge base tree
          when falling back on 3-way merge.

       2. mode SP type SP sha1 TAB path

          The second format is to stuff git ls-tree output into the index
          file.

       3. mode SP sha1 SP stage TAB path

          This format is to put higher order stages into the index file and
          matches git ls-files --stage output.

       To place a higher stage entry to the index, the path should first be
       removed by feeding a mode=0 entry for the path, and then feeding
       necessary input lines in the third format.


       For example, starting with this index:

       $ git ls-files -s
       100644 8a1218a1024a212bb3db30becd860315f9f3ac52 0       frotz





       you can feed the following input to --index-info:

       $ git update-index --index-info
       0 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000      frotz
       100644 8a1218a1024a212bb3db30becd860315f9f3ac52 1       frotz
       100755 8a1218a1024a212bb3db30becd860315f9f3ac52 2       frotz





       The first line of the input feeds 0 as the mode to remove the path; the
       SHA1 does not matter as long as it is well formatted. Then the second
       and third line feeds stage 1 and stage 2 entries for that path. After
       the above, we would end up with this:

       $ git ls-files -s
       100644 8a1218a1024a212bb3db30becd860315f9f3ac52 1       frotz
       100755 8a1218a1024a212bb3db30becd860315f9f3ac52 2       frotz





USING &#8220;ASSUME UNCHANGED&#8221; BIT
       Many operations in git depend on your filesystem to have an efficient
       lstat(2) implementation, so that st_mtime information for working tree
       files can be cheaply checked to see if the file contents have changed
       from the version recorded in the index file. Unfortunately, some
       filesystems have inefficient lstat(2). If your filesystem is one of
       them, you can set "assume unchanged" bit to paths you have not changed
       to cause git not to do this check. Note that setting this bit on a path
       does not mean git will check the contents of the file to see if it has
       changed&#8201;--&#8201;it makes git to omit any checking and assume it
       has not changed. When you make changes to working tree files, you have
       to explicitly tell git about it by dropping "assume unchanged" bit,
       either before or after you modify them.


       In order to set "assume unchanged" bit, use --assume-unchanged option.
       To unset, use --no-assume-unchanged.


       The command looks at core.ignorestat configuration variable. When this
       is true, paths updated with git update-index paths... and paths updated
       with other git commands that update both index and working tree (e.g.
       git apply --index, git checkout-index -u, and git read-tree -u) are
       automatically marked as "assume unchanged". Note that "assume
       unchanged" bit is not set if git update-index --refresh finds the
       working tree file matches the index (use git update-index
       --really-refresh if you want to mark them as "assume unchanged").


EXAMPLES
       To update and refresh only the files already checked out:

       $ git checkout-index -n -f -a && git update-index --ignore-missing --refresh





       On an inefficient filesystem with core.ignorestat set

              $ git update-index --really-refresh              (1)
              $ git update-index --no-assume-unchanged foo.c   (2)
              $ git diff --name-only                           (3)
              $ edit foo.c
              $ git diff --name-only                           (4)
              M foo.c
              $ git update-index foo.c                         (5)
              $ git diff --name-only                           (6)
              $ edit foo.c
              $ git diff --name-only                           (7)
              $ git update-index --no-assume-unchanged foo.c   (8)
              $ git diff --name-only                           (9)
              M foo.c


              1. forces lstat(2) to set "assume unchanged" bits for paths that
              match index.
              2. mark the path to be edited.
              3. this does lstat(2) and finds index matches the path.
              4. this does lstat(2) and finds index does not match the path.
              5. registering the new version to index sets "assume unchanged"
              bit.
              6. and it is assumed unchanged.
              7. even after you edit it.
              8. you can tell about the change after the fact.
              9. now it checks with lstat(2) and finds it has been changed.



SKIP-WORKTREE BIT
       Skip-worktree bit can be defined in one (long) sentence: When reading
       an entry, if it is marked as skip-worktree, then Git pretends its
       working directory version is up to date and read the index version
       instead.


       To elaborate, "reading" means checking for file existence, reading file
       attributes or file content. The working directory version may be
       present or absent. If present, its content may match against the index
       version or not. Writing is not affected by this bit, content safety is
       still first priority. Note that Git can update working directory file,
       that is marked skip-worktree, if it is safe to do so (i.e. working
       directory version matches index version)


       Although this bit looks similar to assume-unchanged bit, its goal is
       different from assume-unchanged bit&#8217;s. Skip-worktree also takes
       precedence over assume-unchanged bit when both are set.


CONFIGURATION
       The command honors core.filemode configuration variable. If your
       repository is on a filesystem whose executable bits are unreliable,
       this should be set to false (see git-config(1)). This causes the
       command to ignore differences in file modes recorded in the index and
       the file mode on the filesystem if they differ only on executable bit.
       On such an unfortunate filesystem, you may need to use git update-index
       --chmod=.


       Quite similarly, if core.symlinks configuration variable is set to
       false (see git-config(1)), symbolic links are checked out as plain
       files, and this command does not modify a recorded file mode from
       symbolic link to regular file.


       The command looks at core.ignorestat configuration variable. See Using
       "assume unchanged" bit section above.


       The command also looks at core.trustctime configuration variable. It
       can be useful when the inode change time is regularly modified by
       something outside Git (file system crawlers and backup systems use
       ctime for marking files processed) (see git-config(1)).


SEE ALSO
       git-config(1), git-add(1)


GIT
       Part of the git(1) suite




                                                           GIT-UPDATE-INDEX(1)
