update-index: allow --index-info to add higher stages.

[git.git] / Documentation / git-update-index.txt

diff --git a/Documentation/git-update-index.txt b/Documentation/git-update-index.txt
index e4678cd..c74311d 100644 (file)
--- a/Documentation/git-update-index.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-update-index.txt
@@ -136,6 +136,63 @@ in the database but the file isn't available locally.  '--info-only' is
 useful when the file is available, but you do not wish to update the
 object database.
 
+
+Using --index-info
+------------------
+
+`--index-info` is a more powerful mechanism that lets you feed
+multiple entry definitions from the standard input, and designed
+specifically for scripts.  It can take inputs of three formats:
+
+    . mode         SP sha1          TAB path
++
+The first format is what "git-apply --index-info"
+reports, and used to reconstruct a partial tree
+that is used for phony merge base tree when falling
+back on 3-way merge.
+
+    . mode SP type SP sha1          TAB path
++
+The second format is to stuff git-ls-tree output
+into the index file.
+
+    . mode         SP sha1 SP stage TAB path
++
+This format is to put higher order stages into the
+index file and matches git-ls-files --stage output.
+
+To place a higher stage entry to the index, the path should
+first be removed by feeding a mode=0 entry for the path, and
+then feeding necessary input lines in the third format.
+
+For example, starting with this index:
+
+------------
+$ git ls-files -s
+100644 8a1218a1024a212bb3db30becd860315f9f3ac52 0       frotz
+------------
+
+you can feed the following input to `--index-info`:
+
+------------
+$ git update-index --index-info
+0 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000     frotz
+100644 8a1218a1024a212bb3db30becd860315f9f3ac52 1      frotz
+100755 8a1218a1024a212bb3db30becd860315f9f3ac52 2      frotz
+------------
+
+The first line of the input feeds 0 as the mode to remove the
+path; the SHA1 does not matter as long as it is well formatted.
+Then the second and third line feeds stage 1 and stage 2 entries
+for that path.  After the above, we would end up with this:
+
+------------
+$ git ls-files -s
+100644 8a1218a1024a212bb3db30becd860315f9f3ac52 1      frotz
+100755 8a1218a1024a212bb3db30becd860315f9f3ac52 2      frotz
+------------
+
+
 Examples
 --------
 To update and refresh only the files already checked out: