How do I make git accept mode changes without accepting all text changes?

Question

I've got the opposite problem from "How do I make git ignore mode changes (chmod)?" I've got a file that I've changed executable permission on, but there are also some text changes, and I want to commit the former but not the latter. Is this possible with git?

(Actually, I've made some text changes I want to commit along with the executable permission change, and others I don't want to commit)

Update: Unstaging the text changes to the file, and then doing git add -p again and incorporating some of the text changes managed to get the mode change into staging. (My git version is 1.5.4.3)

score 82 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 23 '09 at 06:28

82

You should be able to do:

git update-index --chmod=(+|-)x <file>

to adjust the executable bit stored in the index.

You can then commit this separately from any changes to the files content.

answered Oct 23 '09 at 06:28

CB Bailey

755,051
104
632
656

**Note:** use "git commit" (with "git add" if necessary, not "git commit -a". This solution has the advantage in that it works even with ancient git. – Jakub Narębski Oct 23 '09 at 09:21
1

And it also works on filesystems with poor permission support! Even Windows! – remram Oct 15 '13 at 19:52
This solution is way better, @Andrew Grimm. Accept this answer instead, please. – lmaooooo Jun 28 '17 at 19:55

score 15 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 23 '09 at 03:19

15

git add -i will let you selectively add some hunks from a file to the index. I don't know whether or not it's sensitive to permissions, but if you were to add a hunk after the chmod operation, it might end up in the index correctly even without explicitly updating the permission.

answered Oct 23 '09 at 03:19

Bob Aman

32,839
9
71
95

4

That's correct, git add -i (and git add --patch) ask you "Stage mode change?" right before they ask about the changed hunks. – Phil Oct 23 '09 at 03:25
Thanks Phil. That ability seems to be associated with git 1.5.6 according to the release notes. (Unfortunately, my git isn't that recent) – Andrew Grimm Oct 23 '09 at 04:00

score 3 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:17

3

Charles’ answer was adding both file mode and content changes to the index for me. I worked around it like this.

git update-index --skip-worktree --chmod=+x <file>
git update-index --no-skip-worktree <file>

Example

Alternatively you can do

git update-index --chmod=+x <file>
git config interactive.singlekey 1
echo na | git reset -p

edited May 23 '17 at 12:17

Community

1
1

answered Jan 01 '14 at 07:22

Zombo

1
62
391
407

How do I make git accept mode changes without accepting all text changes?

3 Answers3

Linked