rit commit

Create a commit from the staging area (index).

Synopsis

rit commit -m <message>

Description

This is the high-level commit command that creates a commit from files staged in the index. It:

1. Reads the index (staging area)
2. Builds a tree object from staged files
3. Creates a commit object with the tree
4. Updates HEAD (or branch ref) to point to the new commit

Options

Option	Description
-m, --message <message>	Commit message (required)
-a, --auto-add	Automatically stage modified files (not yet implemented)

Examples

Basic Commit

# Stage files
$ rit add file1.txt file2.txt

# Create commit
$ rit commit -m "Add files"
[abc1234] Add files
 2 file(s) changed

Commit Workflow

# 1. Make changes
$ echo "Hello" > hello.txt

# 2. Stage files
$ rit add hello.txt

# 3. Create commit
$ rit commit -m "Add hello.txt"
[def5678] Add hello.txt
 1 file(s) changed

# 4. View history
$ rit log --oneline
def5678 Add hello.txt
abc1234 Initial commit

Multiple Commits

# First commit
$ rit add file1.txt
$ rit commit -m "First commit"
[abc1234] First commit
 1 file(s) changed

# Second commit (with parent)
$ rit add file2.txt
$ rit commit -m "Second commit"
[def5678] Second commit
 1 file(s) changed

# View log
$ rit log
commit def5678...
Author: ...
Date: ...

    Second commit

commit abc1234...
Author: ...
Date: ...

    First commit

How It Works

From Index to Commit

1. Read Index: Loads .rit/index (JSON file with staged files)
2. Build Tree: Creates tree objects from index entries, organizing files into directory structure
3. Create Commit: Uses commit-tree internally to create commit object
4. Update Ref: Updates HEAD or branch ref to point to new commit

Tree Building

The command organizes staged files into a tree structure:

• Files in root → root tree
• Files in subdirectories → subtree entries
• Builds trees bottom-up (deepest first)

Empty Index

If you try to commit with nothing staged:

$ rit commit -m "Empty commit"
nothing to commit, working tree clean

Use Cases

Typical Workflow

# Make changes
$ echo "new content" > file.txt

# Stage changes
$ rit add file.txt

# Commit
$ rit commit -m "Update file.txt"

Verify Commit

# Create commit
$ rit commit -m "Test commit"
[abc1234] Test commit
 1 file(s) changed

# View commit details
$ rit cat-file -p abc1234

# View log
$ rit log

Differences from Git

• Simpler index format: Uses JSON instead of binary format
• No auto-add yet: -a flag is not yet implemented
• No commit hooks: No pre-commit/post-commit hooks

See Also

• add - Stage files for commit
• commit-tree - Low-level commit creation
• log - View commit history
• status - Show staging status (coming in Commit 14)