untracked

Untracked is a term commonly used in version control to describe files that exist in a project’s working directory but are not under the control of the version control system. In Git, untracked files are those that are not in the index (staging area) and therefore are not part of any commit or history. They remain on disk and can be created, modified, or deleted just like any other file, but they are not recorded by Git unless they are added.

In practice, untracked files appear when you create new files or copy files into a repository directory. When you run a status command, such as git status, the system may display a section labeled “Untracked files” with a list of these items. Git will not include untracked files in commits unless you explicitly add them with git add. If you want Git to ignore certain untracked files, you can add patterns to a .gitignore file; ignored files do not show up as untracked in status.

Common management actions include:

- Tracking a file: git add <file> then commit to include it in the repository history.

- Ignoring a file: add a pattern to .gitignore so Git does not report it as untracked.

- Removing an untracked file: delete it manually or use commands like git clean (with caution) to remove untracked files.

Untracked is distinct from tracked files (those already added and committed) and from ignored files (those excluded by ignore rules). The concept is central to understanding how changes are staged and recorded in a repository.