Running `git.add` on removed file throws an error

I am using the React Native example and have noticed issues with trying to run git.add to a file that’s been removed. Instead of adding it to the staged files that’ve been changed, I get a NotFoundError.

[crutchcorn]

Some notes for myself, as I continue to debug this:

• git add package.json totally removes it from the index file
• git reset HEAD package.json will unstage the deleted file without undeleting that file
  • When this is done, it is added back to the index file
• There is a resetIndex function in isomorphic-git
• There is a remove function in isomorphic-git

And, sure enough… When I run the relevant commands, they act the way I would “”“expect”“” them to, now understanding the Git implementation a bit better:

const git = require('isomorphic-git');
const fs = require('fs');
const http = require('isomorphic-git/http/web');
const fetch = require('node-fetch');
globalThis.fetch = fetch;

const path = require('path');
const currPath = path.resolve('./')


git.remove({fs, dir: currPath, filepath: 'package.json'}).then(() => console.log("DONE"))

// Once this is ran, it stages 'package.json'

git.resetIndex({fs, dir: currPath, filepath: 'package.json'}).then(() => console.log("DONE"))

// Once this is ran, it unstages 'package.json'

So I guess here’s my question: Should this edgecase be handed by isomorphic-git or by the clients?

The commands are techincally correct in their behavior, but the documentation for these commands infer that they would otherwise handle these edgecases:

remove - Remove a file from the git index (aka staging area)

add - Add a file to the git index (aka staging area)

As far as I see it, we should either update the documentation for these two commands and add a reference to this particular issue, or we should update the code for these commands and invisibly handle these edgecases. I’d be happy to make a PR to solve this problem and write tests confirming their behavior change if you’d like to go down the “handle edgecase” route. What do you think @wmhilton ?

Edit: Another note is that statusMatrix behaves perfectly when dealing with removed files being marked as staged vs unstaged. I’d argue that this advocates even further for us handling the git add edgecase in the library

[jcubic]

You can see how I’ve implemented git add in my Git Web Terminal: https://github.com/jcubic/git/blob/gh-pages/js/main.js#L884

The issue with my code is that it doesn’t support git add . but it would be easy to add you only need to list all files like (the first branch in 889) but it should use the same code as in else that allow deleting all commands (here there is only delete a single file).