I use "git add ." (or rather -A), but I will always do a "git status" first to make sure I'm not doing something silly. Of course you still have to be careful about subdirectories, which is why I usually also do a "git status" again before committing.

▲ jameshart 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

git add . is nondestructive and reversible. I tend to do git add . and then run git status.

I’m far more interested in confirming my mental model of what I am about to commit if I git commit right now than my mental model of what will be added if I git add right now.

If I didn’t already have that muscle memory I might try to switch to git add -v . which would tell me what files it added. I’d argue that a sane git would just output git status after a git add operation.

But also a sane git would have a more logical command than git rm —cached to unstage a file. Like git unstage perhaps.

▲ mrgitmfmfm an hour ago | parent [-]

No, ”git add .” is not easily reverted, there’s no git sub command for de-adding files from the staging area. You have to copy the whole folder (hope you have enough disk space), checking out an older commit (hard), and copy specific files from the copied folder. Pita.

This is actually a general problem with git and most cli tools, where it would be possible and useful to undo an action, but the tool developer cannot be bothered to implement such time-saving feature.

	▲	YoureWrong23 an hour ago \| parent [-]
		`git reset`

▲ eszed 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I'm with you, though I do it differently. I have a git-status plug-in in my editor that shows me what directories -> files have been changed, and then which lines when I open them. Scanning the sidebar is the same as running "git status" first, but I prefer the visual representation.

▲ airstrike 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

even better, I recently learned I can just `gst` on oh-my-zsh for `git status` and other similar shortcuts

https://kapeli.com/cheat_sheets/Oh-My-Zsh_Git.docset/Content...

▲ noir_lord 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

another `git status` then `git add .` folk here, it's a quick sanity check and then quicker and frankly it's just the habit I got into when I first started using git.

I've never managed to get on with any UI for basic git tasks, they always end up been slower.

	▲	skydhash 5 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I’ve been using magit lately, but I only do ‘git add .’ when it’s a very simple change. Especially in complex projects, I do some changes to isolate code or fix other issues in passing. So I stage by lines and hunks to isolate specific changes and commit them one by one. But magit is the vim of version control, so no speed issue there.