What does the 'git add' command do?

The git add command is used to stage changes in your working directory for the next commit in Git. When you run git add <file>, it tells Git to start tracking the specified file and prepares it to be included in the next commit. This command does not produce any output but updates the staging area, allowing you to selectively choose which changes to commit.

For example, to stage a file named message.txt, you would use:

git add message.txt

After staging, you can check the status of your repository with:

git status

This will show you which files are staged and ready to be committed.