short status

Author: schacon

book/02-git-basics/1-git-basics.asc

@@ -236,6 +236,22 @@ Changes to be committed:
 	modified:   benchmarks.rb
 ----
 
+==== Short Status
+
+While the `git status` output is pretty comprehensive, it's also quite wordy. Git also has a short status flag so you can see your changes in a more compact way. If you run `git status -s` or `git status --short` you get a far more simplified output from the command.
+
+[source,shell]
+----
+$ git status -s
+ M README
+MM Rakefile
+A  lib/git.rb
+M  lib/simplegit.rb
+?? LICENSE.txt
+----
+
+New files that aren't tracked have a `??` next to them, new files that have been added to the staging area have an `A`, modified files have an `M` and so on. There are two columns to the output - the left hand column indicates that the file is staged and the right hand column indicates that it's modified.  So for example in that output, the `README` file is modified in the working directory but not yet staged, while the `lib/simplegit.rb` file is modified and staged. The `Rakefile` was modified, staged and then modified again, so there are changes to it that are both staged and unstaged.
+
 ==== Ignoring Files
 
 Often, you’ll have a class of files that you don’t want Git to automatically add or even show you as being untracked.