# Re: git-add fails after file type change

- From: A Large Angry SCM \<hidden\>
- Date: 2016-08-11 20:27:45 
- List: git
- Page: https://ratatoskr.run/git/2016/08/7691783
- Thread: https://ratatoskr.run/git/2016/08/7689743/t.md

```text
Steven Grimm wrote:
> In the course of experimenting with using git for my snapshot backups, I ran into what looks like a bug in git-add: it croaks when it tries to add a file whose type has changed, specifically when a directory gets moved and a symbolic link is put in the old location pointing to the new one. Here's a simple test case:
>
> $ git init-db
> defaulting to local storage area
> $ mkdir dir
> $ echo foo > dir/file
> $ git add .
> $ git commit -m "initial commit" -a
> Committing initial tree f4bc9c50d08b041f5e096fa68e243c34170f1cd8
> create mode 100644 dir/file
> $ mv dir dir.real
> $ ln -s dir.real dir
> $ git add .
> fatal: unable to add dir to index
>
> Is "git add ." the wrong thing to do here? I have been using it as a generic "pick up all the files I haven't added yet" command. Or is this a bug?
>
> For what it's worth, "git update-index dir" and "git update-index --add dir" both fail too.

```