git-status incorrectly reports that you should
# Changes to be committed:

#   (use "git reset HEAD <file>..." to unstage)

#
when working on the Initial commit.
To reproduce

mkdir foo

cd foo

touch a.txt

git init

git add a.txt

git status
The problem is, obviously, that calling

git reset HEAD a.txt

will result in

fatal: Failed to resolve 'HEAD' as a valid ref.
Why this is important:

New users are Going to accidentally add files they didn't mean to in

their first trials with Git. Providing instructions guaranteed to

error when people are just getting started with it will give git a bad

image and hurt adoption. Also,  just about every time I've added a

sizable project to a new version control system I've accidentally

added a file before the first commit, usually something that should be

added to the ignore file, but still, I think this isn't some random

isolated problem that people never encounter.
While we're at it, can someone please explain to me how to remove a

file from the index prior to the first commit? I'm stumped.
-masukomi

-

rm --cached

-

And indeed, some clever person already made this distinction in the

git-status output, but it has been broken for a while. I'm not sure this

is worth a test now that it is fixed (but such a test _would_ have

caught this); I can make one if you like.
-- >8 --

status: suggest "git rm --cached" to unstage for initial commit
It makes no sense to suggest "git reset HEAD" since we have

no HEAD commit. This actually used to work but regressed in

f26a0012.
wt_status_print_cached_header was updated to take the whole

wt_status struct rather than just the reference field.

Previously the various code paths were sometimes sending in

s->reference and sometimes sending in NULL, making the

decision on whether this was an initial commit before we

even got to this function. Now we must check the initial

flag here.
Signed-off-by: Jeff King <peff@peff.net>

---

 wt-status.c |    2 +-

 1 files changed, 1 insertions(+), 1 deletions(-)
diff --git a/wt-status.c b/wt-status.c

index 27b946d..b5ae98d 100644

--- a/wt-status.c

+++ b/wt-status.c

@@ -60,7 +60,7 @@ static void wt_status_print_cached_header(struct wt_status *s)

 {

 	const char *c = color(WT_STATUS_HEADER);

 	color_fprintf_ln(s->fp, c, "# Changes to be committed:");

-	if (s->reference) {

+	if (!s->is_initial) {

 		color_fprintf_ln(s->fp, c, "#   (use \"git reset %s <file>...\" to unstage)", s->reference);

 	} else {

 		color_fprintf_ln(s->fp, c, "#   (use \"git rm --cached <file>...\" to unstage)");

--

1.5.4.1215.gf7da-dirty
-

In order to avoid regressing again, we must have something like

this included in your change, which I squashed in.
This goes to 'maint'.  Thanks for the fix.
 t/t7502-status.sh |   11 ++++++++++-

 1 files changed, 10 insertions(+), 1 deletions(-)
diff --git a/t/t7502-status.sh b/t/t7502-status.sh

index 9ce50ca..b64ce30 100755

--- a/t/t7502-status.sh

+++ b/t/t7502-status.sh

@@ -17,6 +17,9 @@ test_expect_success 'setup' '

 	: > dir1/tracked &&

 	: > dir1/modified &&

 	git add . &&

+

+	git status >output &&

+

 	test_tick &&

 	git commit -m initial &&

 	: > untracked &&

@@ -28,6 +31,12 @@ test_expect_success 'setup' '

 	git add dir2/added

 '
+test_expect_success 'status (1)' '

+

+	grep -e "use \"git rm --cached <file>\.\.\.\" to unstage" output

+

+'

+

 cat > expect << \EOF

 # On branch master

 # Changes to be committed:

@@ -51,7 +60,7 @@ cat > expect << \EOF

 #	untracked

 EOF
-test_expect_success 'status' '

+test_expect_success 'status (2)' '
 	git status > output &&

 	git diff expect output

-