>> the current index (what you're about to commit) [snip] > You seem to suggest that the index consists of only the files that were modified / added in the co

>> the current index (what you're about to commit) [snip] > You seem to suggest that the index consists of only the files that were modified / added in the commit, which is not the case. To see that the parent's parenthesis doesn't suggest that, consider that in Git you commit the state of the whole tree and not just the modified / added files. The Git manual puts it this way: [git commit] Stores the current contents of the index in a new commit along with a log message from the user describing the changes. EDIT: Sorry, now I see what you mean: >> only copying whatever I'm about to commit ... while the code actually only copies those files that have changes about to be committed.