If you are using a recent git version, you can use diff --staged instead - diff --cached is there for existing users. Specifying names at commit time is really

If you are using a recent git version, you can use diff --staged instead - diff --cached is there for existing users. Specifying names at commit time is really horrible - it's more error prone and harder to get a diff of exactly what you are committing. You can also commit part of files using the staging area by doing git add -p. My workflow is often git add -p; git diff --staged; git commit