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Development Tools Git Basics Getting Started With Git Committing Changes

Kevin Egstorf
Kevin Egstorf
26,590 Points
Posted by Kevin Egstorf
Kevin Egstorf
26,590 Points

the git add command is not working in terminal on my mac, what am i doing wrong?

I am working the gitcourse here on treehouse and i want to work along on my own computer instead of on the websites console. i have noticed in the previous console course that the mac terminal doesn't allow all the unix and linux commands, so i did these on the websites console. but i really want to use git on my own computer. the git add isn't working and i am getting the following error "fatal-not-a-git-repository-or-any-of-the-parent-directories-from-git-status", how can i work around this so i can work this course on my own computer?

7 Answers

James Andrews
James Andrews
7,245 Points

The README is in your user directory THAT IS BAD. You don't ever want a git repository there. 

cd ~/
mv README my_really_cool_project/README
cd my_really_cool_project/
git add -A README
James Andrews
James Andrews
7,245 Points
James Andrews
James Andrews
7,245 Points

you need to initialize the git repository with git init from within your project directory

Kevin Egstorf
Kevin Egstorf
26,590 Points
Kevin Egstorf
Kevin Egstorf
26,590 Points

hi James,

tnx for your reply, now i have tried the following:

MacBook-Pro:my_really_cool_project kevinegstorf$ git init Reinitialized existing Git repository in /Users/kevinegstorf/my_really_cool_project/.git/ MacBook-Pro:my_really_cool_project kevinegstorf$ git add README fatal: pathspec 'README' did not match any files MacBook-Pro:my_really_cool_project kevinegstorf$

but as you can see it is not working, i am probably doing this wrong. could you elaborate on your get init answer?

James Andrews
James Andrews
7,245 Points
James Andrews
James Andrews
7,245 Points

Does the file already exist? The file has to exist before it can be added to the repository. git add does not create the file for you.

Kevin Egstorf
Kevin Egstorf
26,590 Points
Kevin Egstorf
Kevin Egstorf
26,590 Points

when i type ls it sits there:

MacBook-Pro:~ $ ls Adobe Illustrator CS6 16.0.0 Final (Eng Jpn) Mac Os X [ChingLiu] Adobe Photoshop Elements 12 Applications Babygrafix Projects Calibre Library Desktop Development Documents Downloads Library Movies Music Pictures Public README Sync angular.js bootstrapAng gitTest my_really_cool_project

James Andrews
James Andrews
7,245 Points

anytime! Don't forget to choose best answer :-D