Why does 'git commit' not save my changes?

Question

I did a git commit -m "message" like this:

> git commit -m "save arezzo files"
# On branch master
# 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:   arezzo.txt
#       modified:   arezzo.jsp
#
no changes added to commit (use "git add" and/or "git commit -a")

But afterwards, when I do git status it shows the same modified files:

> git status
# On branch master
# 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:   arezzo.txt
#       modified:   arezzo.jsp
#
no changes added to commit (use "git add" and/or "git commit -a")

What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

I had a very similar issue with the same error message. "Changes not staged for commit", yet when I do a diff it shows differences. I finally figured out that a while back I had changed a directories case. ex. "PostgeSQL" to "postgresql". As I remember now sometimes git will leave a file or two behind in the old case directory. Then you will commit a new version to the new case.

Thus git doesn't know which one to rely on. So to resolve it, I had to go onto the github's website. Then you're able to view both cases. And you must delete all the files in the incorrect cased directory. Be sure that you have the correct version saved off or in the correct cased directory.

Once you have deleted all the files in the old case directory, that whole directory will disappear. Then do a commit.

At this point you should be able to do a Pull on your local computer and not see the conflicts any more. Thus being able to commit again. :)

Answer 2

I had an issue where I was doing commit --amend even after issuing a git add . and it still wasn't working. Turns out I made some .vimrc customizations and my editor wasn't working correctly. Fixing these errors so that vim returns the correct code resolved the issue.

Answer 3

You should do:

git commit . -m "save arezzo files"

Answer 4

The reason why this is happening is because you have a folder that is already being tracked by Git inside another folder that is also tracked by Git. For example, I had a project and I added a subfolder to it. Both of them were being tracked by Git before I put one inside the other. In order to stop tracking the one inside, find it and remove the Git file with:

rm -rf .git

In my case I had a WordPress application and the folder I added inside was a theme. So I had to go to the theme root, and remove the Git file, so that the whole project would now be tracked by the parent, the WordPress application.

Answer 5

You could have done a:

git add -u -n

To check which files you modified and are going to be added (dry run: -n option), and then

git add -u

To add just modified files