What bothers me is that I receive the same status whatever the branch I'm on.
For purposes of illustration, let's suppose there is just one file in the workspace. All you've done is git init, create the file, add it, and commit.
themini:gittest mattneubelcap$ git init
Initialized empty Git repository in /Users/mattneubelcap/gittest/.git/
themini:gittest mattneubelcap$ echo "test" > test.txt
themini:gittest mattneubelcap$ git add .
themini:gittest mattneubelcap$ git commit -m "test"
[master (root-commit) 1569fd7] test
1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)
create mode 100644 test.txt
You are on branch master and you make branch mybranch without checking it out. Now you change the first file. You also create another file. And you ask about the status.
themini:gittest mattneubelcap$ git branch mybranch
themini:gittest mattneubelcap$ echo "test still" > test.txt
themini:gittest mattneubelcap$ echo "test2" > test2.txt
themini:gittest mattneubelcap$ git status
On branch master
Changes not staged for commit:
(use "git add <file>..." to update what will be committed)
(use "git checkout -- <file>..." to discard changes in working directory)
modified: test.txt
Untracked files:
(use "git add <file>..." to include in what will be committed)
test2.txt
no changes added to commit (use "git add" and/or "git commit -a")
The two files have different statuses. test.txt is modified, but test2.txt is untracked.
Now let's change test2.txt and look at the status again.
themini:gittest mattneubelcap$ echo "test2 still" > test2.txt
themini:gittest mattneubelcap$ git status
On branch master
Changes not staged for commit:
(use "git add <file>..." to update what will be committed)
(use "git checkout -- <file>..." to discard changes in working directory)
modified: test.txt
Untracked files:
(use "git add <file>..." to include in what will be committed)
test2.txt
no changes added to commit (use "git add" and/or "git commit -a")
Observe that git does not remark on the fact that we have changed test2.txt. It is untracked! All git knows is: hey, there's a file sitting in your work folder, and you haven't told me what to do with it.
Okay, we add test.txt (because git told us we've modified it) and commit, and switch branches.
themini:gittest mattneubelcap$ git add test.txt
themini:gittest mattneubelcap$ git commit -m "changed test.txt"
[master 316c8b7] changed test.txt
1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)
themini:gittest mattneubelcap$ git checkout mybranch
Switched to branch 'mybranch'
themini:gittest mattneubelcap$ cat test.txt
test
test.txt is still in its old form here, because we branched before we changed the text from "test" to "test still". What's our status?
themini:gittest mattneubelcap$ git status
On branch mybranch
Untracked files:
(use "git add <file>..." to include in what will be committed)
test2.txt
nothing added to commit but untracked files present (use "git add" to track)
No word about test.txt; it is there, but there is nothing interesting to know about it. On the other hand, test2.txt is still an anomaly. git won't touch it, but it will continue to complain that it is mystified about this file.
Let's switch back.
themini:gittest mattneubelcap$ git checkout master
Switched to branch 'master'
themini:gittest mattneubelcap$ cat test.txt
test still
themini:gittest mattneubelcap$ git status
On branch master
Untracked files:
(use "git add <file>..." to include in what will be committed)
test2.txt
nothing added to commit but untracked files present (use "git add" to track)
There's the other version of test.txt. Our status still says nothing about test.txt, though, because there is nothing to know about it. But test2.txt remains an anomaly and git tells us about it.
Do you see what this shows? For all files that git is tracking, when you switch branches, you get the version of that file belonging to that branch. But for all files that git is not tracking, nothing happens; the file just sits there while the world changes around it. That's because the file is not tracked. It is no business of git's to make it come and go. It is no business of git's to know (and it does not know) whether you have modified it since creating it. And git will continue to mention that the file exists and is untracked, until you either:
(a) add it (thus telling git to start tracking it); or
(b) remove it; or
(c) tell git to ignore it.
