Raimund Bauer offered this suggestion (paraphrased):
"Maybe we could do git-commit -a  _only_ if the index matches HEAD, and

otherwise keep current behavior?  So people who don't care about the

index won't get tripped up, and when you do have a dirty index, you get

told about it?"
Johannes Schindelin pointed out that this isn't the right thing to do for

an --amend, so that is checked for. Additionally, it's probably not the

right thing to do if any files are specified with "--only" or

"--include", so they turn this behaviour off as well.
Nguyen Thai Ngoc Duy asked that git-commit let you know it's done this

by adding an extra comment to the commit message.
Signed-off-by: Andy Parkins <andyparkins@gmail.com>

---

This time we also inhibit if "all" mode is already set; if the user

has specified "-a" we don't need to tell them that we've switched "-a"

mode on.
 git-commit.sh |   10 ++++++++++

 1 files changed, 10 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
diff --git a/git-commit.sh b/git-commit.sh

index 81c3a0c..4552727 100755

--- a/git-commit.sh

+++ b/git-commit.sh

@@ -265,6 +265,16 @@ $1"

 done

 case "$edit_flag" in t) no_edit= ;; esac
+# Clever commit - if this commit would do nothing, then make it an "all"

+# commit

+if [ -z "$(git-diff-index --cached --name-only HEAD)" \

+	-a -z "$amend" -a -z "$only" -a -z "$also" -a -z "$all" ]; then

+	echo "# There was nothing to commit but changes were detected in the" > $GIT_DIR/SQUASH_MSG

+	echo "# working tree. 'git commit -a' mode activated." >> $GIT_DIR/SQUASH_MSG

+	echo "#" >> $GIT_DIR/SQUASH_MSG

+	all=t

+fi

+

 ################################################################

 # Sanity check options
--

1.4.4.1.g3ece-dirty
-

I think another exception should be needed.  If the index does

not match the working tree, it should not default to "-a".
Otherwise,
I want to fix another thing in pickaxe.
	$ edit builtin-blame.c
My wife calls me.  Away from desk for 20 minutes.  Later I come

back.
	$ git update-index builtin-pickaxe.c
I am so used to that name and did not realize that typo, and I

was not paying too much attention.  My wife calls me again.

Away from desk and back in 20 minutes.
	$ git commit -m 'git-blame: Another fix.'
Oops.
So, please turn this "cleverness" off when the index does not

match the working tree.
-

No problem: just don't apply the patch :-)  What you've asked for leaves it as

a no-op.
This patch activates "-a" when the index equals HEAD.  i.e. git-commit would

do nothing in this situation.  If it is disabled when the index doesn't match

the working tree, then we're back to "do nothing".  i.e. HEAD==index==working 
How does that help you?  You've updated the index manually, so the

automatic "-a" is already disabled.  Without this patch you would still have

committed the wrong thing.
 $ edit builtin-blame.c

 $ git update-index builtin-pickaxe.c

 $ git commit
What is that you would like to have happened at this point?
Andy

--

Dr Andy Parkins, M Eng (hons), MIEE

andyparkins@gmail.com

-

I think there needs a bit of explanation and additional step

that happened here.  This by the way is not a made-up example.

Everything, including the 20-minute away, were what happened

when I did the latest blame fix you saw a few days ago.
 * I am still futzing with blame from time to time, and have

   this change almost permanently in my working tree.
	$ cat P.diff

        diff --git a/builtin-blame.c b/builtin-blame.c

        index dc3ffea..46ce45c 100644

        --- a/builtin-blame.c

        +++ b/builtin-blame.c

        @@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ static int max_digits;

         static int max_score_digits;
         #ifndef DEBUG

        -#define DEBUG 0

        +#define DEBUG 1

         #endif
 * And then reverted the DEBUG back to 0 in preparation for

   "checking into the index"
 * And then I reverted it back for later futing.
 * Oops here is not just that builtin-blame.c would have been

   committed; I'd almost never do "commit -a" in this repository,

   because it would take that "DEBUG 1" change _and_
-