CODEWITHSUNDEEP
gitgit-commit
doublejosh
doublejosh

Reputation: 5764

How to 'git commit' a single file/directory

I tried the following command:

git commit path/to/my/file.ext -m 'my notes'

And received an error in Git version 1.5.2.1:

error: pathspec '-m' did not match any file(s) known to git.
error: pathspec 'MY MESSAGE' did not match any file(s) known to git.

Is that incorrect syntax for a single file or directory commits?

Upvotes: 275

Views: 473110

Answers (8)

Danish Mehmood
Danish Mehmood

Reputation: 151

Suppose you are working on big project and have opened multiple files, and you made changes in single file, when you don't need to write git add ., this will add all the files to git, so you first need to check where you made changes by git status, here you will see all the paths next to the filenames, copy the path of the file where you made change and then write git add path, here path is whole line of path to the file (your modified file). Then you write your commit message by git -m "message" and then push.

This will push only the specified file which you have used with git add file

Upvotes: 1

wadesworld
wadesworld

Reputation: 13733

Try:

git commit -m 'my notes' path/to/my/file.ext

of if you are in the current directory, add ./ to the front of the path;

git commit -m 'my notes' ./path/to/my/file.ext

Upvotes: 115

Nur Mohammad Rayhan 181-35-236
Nur Mohammad Rayhan 181-35-236

Reputation: 1

You try if you are in the master branch:

git commit -m "Commit message" -- filename.ext

Upvotes: -5

Rahul TP
Rahul TP

Reputation: 584

Specify the path after the entered commit message, like:

git commit -m "commit message" path/to/file.extension

Upvotes: 8

EddieBaby
EddieBaby

Reputation: 272

For Git 1.9.5 on Windows 7: "my Notes" (double quotes) corrected this issue. In my case, putting the file(s) before or after the -m 'message' made no difference; using single quotes was the problem.

Upvotes: 5

Lily Ballard
Lily Ballard

Reputation: 185663

Your arguments are in the wrong order. Try git commit -m 'my notes' path/to/my/file.ext, or if you want to be more explicit, git commit -m 'my notes' -- path/to/my/file.ext.

Incidentally, Git v1.5.2.1 is 4.5 years old. You may want to update to a newer version (1.7.8.3 is the current release).

Upvotes: 433

W.Perrin
W.Perrin

Reputation: 4685

Use the -o option.

git commit -o path/to/myfile -m "the message"

-o, --only commit only specified files

Upvotes: 11

Piethon
Piethon

Reputation: 201

If you are in the folder which contains the file

git commit -m 'my notes' ./name_of_file.ext

Upvotes: 20

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