git: I can add a directory, but at commit time I get "nothing to commit"

Question

I'm trying to add two directories to a git repo. I can add them OK, but when trying to "commit", I get "nothing to commit". I'm following the add->commit->push sequence, but in this case it doesn't seem to be working. I have already pulled everything from the repo.

Any hints? thanks!

Answer 1

You will be able to commit as soon as you make a change to/add a file. Adding a directory to git can't be commited itself; you need to add/edit a file inside the directory.

Try adding something in css and comitting afterwards.

Answer 2

Git only tracks files - when you run git add <directory>, what you're actually doing is telling Git to add the contents of any files in that directory. Since the directory is currently empty, it doesn't add anything, and thus there's nothing to commit.

For instance, the following would work:

$ touch css/main.css
$ git add css
$ git commit -m "Add empty main CSS file"

Answer 3

As everybody says, git track only files, not directories. So you can't add empty directory into it. You can make a trick by adding empty .gitignore in directory css and commit it.