Git Activity: Add an untracked file to a local repo

README.md

Git Activity: Add an untracked file to a local repo

Part 3 of 6: Publish and update a website with Git and GitHub Pages

1. Create a GitHub repository
2. Clone a GitHub repository
3. Add an empty webpage to a local repo
4. Commit changes to index.html.
5. push changes to GitHub.
6. Deploy your GitHub repo to GitHub Pages.

Pre-requisites

• You see nothing to commit, working tree clean when you check your repo status:

  $ git status
  

Instructions

1. Create/move an index.html file inside your cloned repo.

   • Example code: You may copy the contents of empty.html in this Gist.

2. Check your repo status.

   $ git status
   

   You should see index.html as an untracked file:

   On branch main
   Your branch is up to date with 'origin/main'.
   
   Untracked files:
     (use "git add <file>..." to include in what will be committed)
     index.html
   
   nothing added to commit but untracked files present (use "git add" to track)
   

3. Add index.html to track the file with Git (you'll be using add a lot in your dev life):

   $ git add index.html
   

   • You need to explicitly add changes before they can be committed later, because Git.

4. Check your repo status (you can never check your repo status enough).

   $ git status
   

   You should see index.html as a new file to be committed:

   On branch main
   Your branch is up to date with 'origin/main'.
   
   Changes to be committed:
     (use "git restore --staged <file>..." to unstage)
     new file:   index.html
   

5. Commit your new file:

   $ git commit -m "added index.html"
   

   Git will save your changes as a snapshot of your project.

   [main 169a1b0] added index.html
    1 file changed, 11 insertions(+)
    create mode 100644 index.html
   

   • Warning: Commit messages are mandatory. If you omit -m "some commit message", your terminal will open vim or some other command line text editor. Worst case: close your terminal window and open another one.

6. Confirm the status of your repo:

   $ git status
   

   You should see nothing to commit, working tree clean.

Next Steps

• Make changes to index.html and commit them