Untracked files after git add

Question

Whenever I use 'git add X' and then when I run git status it shows the file is in the staging area but there's an untracked file named 'X~'. Why does this happen and what exactly does it mean?

Answer 1

Some text editors (for example, gedit) make backup copies of files you edit. They save them under name <original-file-name>~ .

You have two options:

1) configure your editor not to save backup copies, or

2) add line *~ to the file .gitignore .

Answer 2

It can be left as a backup file by a text editor.

You can add *~ to your .gitignore , in order for git status to ignore those files.