Why doesn't git commit -a add new files?

Question

I\'m a bit new to git, and I fail to understand why git commit -a only stages changed and deleted files but not new files.

Can anyone explain why is it

Answer 1

Git is about tracking changes. It relies on you to tell it which files are important enough to track. You can achieve the desired affect like so:

git add . ;git commit -a

Make sure your .gitignore file is updated.