Commit changes only in one directory in Git

Question

I'm using Git 1.7.4.1 on Mac 10.6.6. From the command line, how do I commit changes in only a single directory? I added the directory by doing:

git add my-dir 

but doing

git commit -a 

brings up a list of all changes in my repo, and I only want to commit and push changes from my-dir.

Answer 1

Why does no one mention you can simply

git commit -m 'message' -- my-dir 

It seems to me the OP isn't used to / doesn't like to use the staging area directly. This approach is also a lot safer to recommend without further context, because chances are that a defaault commit (of everything that's staged) will

• commit more than just my-dir if it already had been staged
• will produce confusing results when the OP is not used to managing the staging area explicitly (because the working tree can have gotten out of synch with the index)