How to tell if a file is git tracked (by shell exit code)?

Question

Is there a way to tell if a file is being tracked by running some git command and checking its exit code?

In other words: is git tracking a file?

Answer 1

EDIT

If you need to use git from bash there is --porcelain option to git status:

--porcelain

Give the output in a stable, easy-to-parse format for scripts. Currently this is identical to --short output, but is guaranteed not to change in the future, making it safe for scripts.

Output looks like this:

> git status --porcelain
 M starthudson.sh
?? bla

Or if you do only one file at a time:

> git status --porcelain bla
?? bla

---

ORIGINAL

do:

git status

You will see report stating which files were updated and which ones are untracked.

You can see bla.sh is tracked and modified and newbla is not tracked:

# On branch master
# Changed but not updated:
#   (use "git add ..." to update what will be committed)
#
#       modified:   bla.sh
#
# Untracked files:
#   (use "git add ..." to include in what will be committed)
#
#       newbla
no changes added to commit (use "git add" and/or "git commit -a")