git -a "will add and commit" is not correct: -a means "--all"

sanderhollaar

In https://trainingportal.linuxfoundation.org/learn/course/gitops-continuous-delivery-on-kubernetes-with-flux-lfs269/essentials-of-git-workflows/git-workflows?page=5 at 2:55 is stated "git commit -am". "-a" will add and commit

-a actually means --all and is used instead of providing the name(s) of the file(s) that is to be committed.

https://git-scm.com/docs/git-commit

-a
--all
    Automatically stage files that have been modified and deleted

Without -a the commit would be performed with commit -m "updated README" README.md

luisviveropena

Hi @sanderhollaar,

I checked on the documentation and you are right. '-a' parameter means the following:

"Automatically stage files that have been modified and deleted, but new files you have not told Git about are not affected".

Per the documentation here:

https://git-scm.com/docs/git-commit

And then '-m' is the associated message to the commit operation.

Regards,
Luis.