Git: list only “untracked” files (also, custom commands)

Question

Is there a way to use a command like git ls-files to show only untracked files?

The reason I'm asking is because I use the following command to process all deleted files:

git ls-files -d | xargs git rm

I'd like something similar for untracked files:

git some-command --some-options | xargs git add

I was able to find the -o option to git ls-files, but this isn't what I want because it also shows ignored files. I was also able to come up with the following long and ugly command:

git status --porcelain | grep '^??' | cut -c4- | xargs git add

It seems like there's got to be a better command I can use here. And if there isn't, how do I create custom git commands?

Answer 1

To list untracked files try:

git ls-files --others --exclude-standard

If you need to pipe the output to xargs, it is wise to mind white spaces using git ls-files -z and xargs -0:

git ls-files -z -o --exclude-standard | xargs -0 git add

Nice alias for adding untracked files:

au = !git add $(git ls-files -o --exclude-standard)

Edit: For reference: git-ls-files

Answer 2

If you just want to remove untracked files, do this:

git clean -df

add x to that if you want to also include specifically ignored files. I use git clean -dfx a lot throughout the day.

You can create custom git by just writing a script called git-whatever and having it in your path.

Answer 3

git add -A -n will do what you want. -A adds all untracked files to the repo, -n makes it a dry-run where the add isn't performed but the status output is given listing each file that would have been added.

Answer 4

The accepted answer crashes on filenames with space. I'm at this point not sure how to update the alias command, so I'll put the improved version here:

git ls-files -z -o --exclude-standard | xargs -0 git add

Answer 5

Everything is very simple

To get list of all untracked files use command git status with option -u (--untracked-files)

git status -u

Answer 6

When looking for files to potentially add. The output from git show does that but it also includes a lot of other stuff. The following command is useful to get the same list of files but without all of the other stuff.

 git status --porcelain | grep "^?? " | sed -e 's/^[?]* //'

This is useful when combined in a pipeline to find files matching a specific pattern and then piping that to git add.

git status --porcelain | grep "^?? "  | sed -e 's/^[?]* //' | \
egrep "\.project$|\.settings$\.classfile$" | xargs -n1 git add

Answer 7

I know its an old question, but in terms of listing untracked files I thought I would add another one which also lists untracked folders:

You can used the git clean operation with -n (dry run) to show you which files it will remove (including the .gitignore files) by:

git clean -xdn

This has the advantage of showing all files and all folders that are not tracked. Parameters:

• x - Shows all untracked files (including ignored by git and others, like build output etc...)
• d - show untracked directories
• n - and most importantly! - dryrun, i.e. don't actually delete anything, just use the clean mechanism to display the results.

Answer 8

All previous answers which I checked would list the files to be committed, too. Here is a simple and easy solution that only lists files which are not yet in the repo and not subject to .gitignore.

git status --porcelain | awk '/^\?\?/ { print $2; }'

Answer 9

I think this will so the same thing as the original poster intended:

git add .