Git Advanced: Git, what if you forgot to add a file to a commit?

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This is common, you commit something but realize you forgot to include a specific file, maybe because you forgot to run git add to stage it.

No worries - you can use git commit --amend to take the previous commit, “undo” it, apply all that’s currently staged, and then commit again:

git add file-forgotten.txt
git commit --amend

If you need, you can also change the commit message while you’re adding the file, using the -m option:

git commit --amend -m "New commit message"

As with any operation that rewrites the history, I would only use it if you are working on a local branch, or if you are 100% sure no one else is working on the same branch.

Lessons in this unit:

0:	Introduction
1:	Working with Remotes
2:	Squashing Commits
3:	Rebase vs Merge
4:	Git Bisect for Debugging
5:	Git Worktrees
6:	Git Submodules
7:	Understanding Detached HEAD
8:	Managing Secrets in Git
9:	Git Workflows and Best Practices
10:	How to push to 2 repositories at the same time and keep them in sync
11:	How to update a Git branch from another branch
12:	Git, detached HEAD
13:	Trigger deploys on Netlify with submodules
14:	A Git Cheat Sheet
15:	Git, squashing vs not squashing
16:	An incomplete list of great Git tutorials
17:	▶︎ Git, what if you forgot to add a file to a commit?
18:	Git workflow to manage work on multiple branches
19:	How to setup the Git SSH keys