Moving back to Git, we can see whether Git has picked up that there is a new file in the repo.
We can check this by running git status:
$ git status
and the output should be something like:
On branch master
Your branch is up-to-date with 'origin/master'.
Untracked files:
(use "git add <file>..." to include in what will be committed)
params/augustinus_vourinus.R
nothing added to commit but untracked files present (use "git add" to track)
There is one file containing changes and that it is the new parameters file you just created. At the moment, it is ‘untracked’ by git.
To add (stage) this file to the commit we are about to make, we’ll use the git add command. Please ONLY STAGE YOUR NEW FILE (ie if for any reason you’ve accidentally edited any other file in the repo, please do not stage it).
$ git add params/augustinus_vourinus.R
It’s a good idea to regularly use git status to get a picture of the state of the repository before doing anything. Let’s do it now:
$ git status
On branch master
Your branch is up-to-date with 'origin/master'.
Changes to be committed:
(use "git reset HEAD <file>..." to unstage)
new file: params/augustinus_vourinus.R
We can see that now we’ve staged the new file, it appears under “Changes to be commited”.
The file has now moved to staging area. Were now ready to commit it. Before that we need to provide a descriptive commit message that explains what the changes contained in this commit are.
$ git commit -m 'a descriptive commit message'
Use the git commit command to commit the staged file(s), with the -m option to add a message. Running git commit without -m will open the default text editor for you to add a message, this is just a bit quicker for a short message.
By convention, commit messages are in the present tense. You can think of them as following the phrase “This commit will..”. For instance:
$ git commit -m 'add params file for augustinus_vourinus'
[master bc57995] add params file for augustinus_vourinus
1 file changed, 15 insertions(+)
create mode 100755 params/augustinus_vourinus.R
The changes have now been committed locally to git but you still need to update your remote fork on GitHub. We’ll do this by pushing our local changes to GitHub