Create a Git commit

The building block of version control in Git is the commit. A commit represents a unit of work that you want to save in your repository. It includes changes to files, a commit message, and metadata like the author and timestamp.

Create a commit

Using git commit -m <message>, you can create a new commit with the staged changes and the specified <message>. If you omit the -m option, Git will open the default text editor to enter the commit message.

# Syntax: git commit [-m <message>]

git add .
git commit -m "Fix the network bug"
# Creates a commit with the message "Fix the network bug"

git add .
git commit
# Opens the default text editor to enter the commit message

Commit without running git hooks

If, for whatever reason, you want to skip the pre-commit and commit-msg hooks, you can use the --no-verify option with the git commit command. Running git commit --no-verify -m <message> will commit the staged changes without running the hooks.

# Syntax: git commit --no-verify -m <message>

# Make some changes to files, ones that your precommit hook might not allow
git add .
git commit --no-verify -m "Unsafe commit"
# Creates a commit with the message "Unsafe commit", without running git hooks

Create an empty commit

Empty commits are sometimes useful when you want to mark a point in history without making any changes. You can create an empty commit using the --allow-empty option with the git commit command. Running git commit --allow-empty -m <message> will create an empty commit with the provided <message>. No changes will be included in the commit, but it will still be recorded in the repository history.

# Syntax: git commit --allow-empty -m <message>

git commit --allow-empty -m "Empty commit"
# Creates an empty commit with the message "Empty commit"