Use Git to add a file to a repository

To add a new file from the command line:

  1. Open a terminal.

  2. Change directories until you are in your project’s folder. 

    cd my-project
  3. Choose a Git branch to work in.
    • To create a branch: git checkout -b <branchname>
    • To switch to an existing branch: git checkout <branchname>
  4. Copy the file you want to add into the directory where you want to add it.
  5. Confirm that your file is in the directory:
    • Windows: dir
    • All other operating systems: ls

    The filename should be displayed.

  6. Check the status of the file: 

    git status

    The filename should be in red. The file is in your file system, but Git isn’t tracking it yet.

  7. Tell Git to track the file: 

    git add <filename>

  8. Check the status of the file again: 

    git status

    The filename should be green. The file is tracked locally by Git, but has not been committed and pushed.

  9. Commit the file to your local copy of the project’s Git repository: 

    git commit -m "Describe the reason for your commit here"

  10. Push your changes from your copy of the repository to GitLab. In this command, origin refers to the remote copy of the repository. Replace <branchname> with the name of your branch: 

    git push origin <branchname>

  11. Git prepares, compresses, and sends the data. Lines from the remote repository start with remote:: 

    Enumerating objects: 9, done.
Counting objects: 100% (9/9), done.
Delta compression using up to 10 threads
Compressing objects: 100% (5/5), done.
Writing objects: 100% (5/5), 1.84 KiB | 1.84 MiB/s, done.
Total 5 (delta 3), reused 0 (delta 0), pack-reused 0
remote:
remote: To create a merge request for <branchname>, visit:
remote:   https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/merge_requests/new?merge_request%5Bsource_branch%5D=<branchname>
remote:
To https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab.git
 * [new branch]                <branchname> -> <branchname>
branch '<branchname>' set up to track 'origin/<branchname>'.

Your file is copied from your local copy of the repository to the remote repository.

To create a merge request, copy the link sent back from the remote repository and paste it into a browser window.

Add a file to the last commit 

git add <filename>
git commit --amend

Append --no-edit to the commit command if you do not want to edit the commit message.