git status: Get short status

Below commands are used to get short status about the local git working tree.

git status -s

git status --short

Step 1: Clone the repository ‘https://github.com/harikrishna553/gitHelloWorld.git’.

$git clone https://github.com/harikrishna553/gitHelloWorld.git
Cloning into 'gitHelloWorld'...
remote: Enumerating objects: 9, done.
remote: Counting objects: 100% (9/9), done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (5/5), done.
remote: Total 9 (delta 0), reused 6 (delta 0), pack-reused 0
Unpacking objects: 100% (9/9), done.

Step 2: Navigate to gitHelloWorld folder and execute the command ‘git status -s’.

$cd gitHelloWorld/
$git status -s
$

Since there are no changes done in local repository, ‘git status -s’ do not print anything.

Step 3: let's add some information to welcome.txt file and execute ‘git status -s’ command.

$git status -s
 M welcome.txt

‘M’ specifies that the file is modified.

Step 4: Similarly create new file called ‘hobbies.txt’ and execute ‘git status -s’ command.

$git status -s
 M welcome.txt
?? hobbies.txt

?? represents that this file is untracked.

Step 5: let's add hobbies.txt to index and execute ‘git status -s’ command.

$git add hobbies.txt 
$
$git status -s
A  hobbies.txt
 M welcome.txt

‘A’ represents that new file is added to staging area.

As you see the output of ‘git status -s’ command, every row in the output is divided into 3 columns. First column represents staging area, second column represents Modified area and third column represent file name.

Let’s add welcome.txt to staging and execute ‘git status -s’ command.

$git add welcome.txt 
$
$git status -s
A  hobbies.txt
M  welcome.txt

M  welcome.txt

Above statement specifies that welcome.txt file is modified and added to staging area.

Step 7: let's update welcome.txt again by updating some content in it.

$git status -s
A  hobbies.txt
MM welcome.txt

MM welcome.txt

From the above statement it is clear the welcome.txt file is updated and it is in both staging area and modified area.

‘git status’ output is given below.

$git status
On branch master
Your branch is up to date with 'origin/master'.

Changes to be committed:
  (use "git reset HEAD <file>..." to unstage)

 new file:   hobbies.txt
 modified:   welcome.txt

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:   welcome.txt

How can a file be in both modified and staging area?

When you first moved 'welcome.txt' file from modified state to staging using 'git add' command, the changes in the file 'welcome.txt' at that point are added to staging area. When you re update the file 'welcome.txt' after staging, then git sees it as new change and place it in modified area. If you commit the files in staging area right now, then staged files will get committed, but not the latest update of 'welcome.txt' file.

$git status -s
A  hobbies.txt
MM welcome.txt
$
$git commit -m "Adding hobbies and welcome files"
[master 306439d] Adding hobbies and welcome files
 2 files changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)
 create mode 100644 hobbies.txt
$
$git status -s
 M welcome.txt
$
$git status
On branch master
Your branch is ahead of 'origin/master' by 1 commit.
  (use "git push" to publish your local commits)

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:   welcome.txt

no changes added to commit (use "git add" and/or "git commit -a")

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