Cannot see new files added to my git working directory

Question

git version 1.7.4.1

I am using git on Ubuntu.

I have copied some files from another directory to my git working directory. Normally would appear under Untracked files. However, they do not appear. So I cannot add them.

When I do a git status the new files are not shown.

I tried to add them by doing git add source.c then tried git status. The file was not show.

So I opened the file and did a save as as the same name. git status still failed to see the file.

I have done a git ls-files and the new files are shown ok.

I have checked the file permissions and they are the same as all the current files in my git directory.

I have never had this problem before.

Many thanks for any suggestions,

Answer 1

If git ls-files shows source.c, then it must already be in the index. This means that it is already tracked, and possibly already committed. If source.c isn't showing up in git status at all, then the file must have been committed.

Try modifying the file to see if it shows up as modified in git status. To really convince yourself that the file is checked in, run git cat-file -p HEAD:source.c to see the contents of the checked-in file (see git help revisions for documentation about the HEAD:source.c syntax).

In addition, one or more of the following may be true:

• The file has been modified, but the 'assume unchanged' bit is set in the index. Take a look at the output of git ls-files -v source.c. If the first column is a lower-case letter, then the 'assume unchanged' bit is set. This will prevent any changes from showing up in git status. You can turn off the 'assume unchanged' bit by running git update-index --no-assume-unchanged source.c.
• The file has been modified, but the 'skip-worktree' bit is set in the index. If the first column of the output of git ls-files -v source.c is s or S then the 'skip-worktree' bit is set. You can turn off the 'skip-worktree' bit by running git update-index --no-skip-worktree source.c.
• Your index is corrupt. Try deleting .git/index (Git will recreate it as necessary).
• Filesystem issues are preventing stat() from working properly. Try running git update-index --really-refresh. If your working directory is on a network drive (NFS, sshfs, etc.) try moving your repository to a local drive.

Answer 2

It's hard to tell what's wrong from the information given, however as a workaround you can try git add -f filename.c. This will add the file even if it would otherwise be ignored.