status

Git · Reference cheat sheet

📋 Overview

git status shows the working tree vs index vs HEAD: staged, unstaged, and untracked files. Use short and porcelain formats in scripts; branch tracking info shows ahead/behind remotes.

🔧 Core concepts

• Sections — staged (index), unstaged (worktree), untracked.
• Branch — current branch, upstream, ahead/behind counts.
• Short — -s / --short; --branch adds branch header.
• Porcelain — -z / --porcelain=v1|v2 stable for scripts.
• Ignore — --ignored lists ignored files; respect .gitignore.

💡 Examples

git status
git status -sb              # short + branch
git status --porcelain=v1   # scripting

# Only untracked
git status -u

# Show ignored
git status --ignored

# Path limited
git status -- apps/web

# Useful aliases
# st = status -sb
git config alias.st "status -sb"

## main...origin/main [ahead 1]
M  staged-file.ts
 M unstaged-file.ts
?? new-file.ts

⚠️ Pitfalls

• “Clean” status doesn’t mean pushed — check ahead/behind or git log @\{u\}...
• Renames show as delete+add unless similarity detection kicks in (status / diff -M).
• Submodule dirty state appears as modified content — inspect inside the submodule.
• Assume-unchanged / skip-worktree files can hide local edits.
• CRLF warnings may appear without listing as modified — check core.autocrlf.

🔗 Related

• stage.md
• diff.md
• commit.md
• branch.md
• clean.md
• gitignore.md