Is the Git staging area just an index?

Question

The book Pro Git says that the staging area is just a list, or index, that says which files will be committed when a git commit is done, and now the name inde

Answer 1

The staging area is not just a list, nor index, which says which files will be committed when a git commit is done.

If it were that, i.e. a simple list, git add could never work as advertised.

Rather, git add has to save the contents of the file at the time that the add command is given. So it snapshots files, and then puts these snapshots into the staging area, (aka 'the index', which IMHO is really a rather poor choice for a name).

So yes, in fact, the book's statement is misleading and confusing. But this isn't too surprising. Much of the git documentation is confusing and poorly thought out.

Go ahead and mark me down. I'm sure I'm right about this.