Can't stage files in SourceTree

Question

I'm trying to set up my initial commit, but I can't seem to stage any files.  I've dragged them from the Unstaged Files area to the Staged Files area, but they never show up in Staged Files.  It seems as though I'd done it once, because my "Initial Commit" in the Branches window shows the files, but they don't show up in my Bitbucket repo.

I'm new to git and have no idea how this really works and I'm very confused at this point.  The Bitbucket website says I have no commits, but SourceTree is telling me it committed something somewhere and Bitbucket is the only remote repo I have set up.  I feel like I'm missing something but have no idea what it is.

Seth · Answer

Welcome to Git.

When using a DVCS (Git/Mercurial, for example), one of the most important characteristics to understand is that the day-to-day versioning operations (checkout, commit, branch, merge) do not interact with remote repositories. Rather, the initial setup on your machine creates a full, local repository, and all of those operations interact with your local repository. Operations like Push and Pull synchronize changes to your local repo with any remotes you have configured.

Check out the Git Book, even (especially?) if you have used centralized versioning in the past (CVS, SVN). I especially recommend sections 1.1 - 1.3, and chapters 2 and 3.