[git] git commit error: pathspec 'commit' did not match any file(s) known to git

I am trying to upload a Ruby app to Heroku. I start with git init and then I type git add . and then I use git commit -m initial commit.

Whenever I use git commit -m, I receive an error message saying:

git commit error:pathspect 'commit' did not match any file(s) known to git.

I have been told that this is happening because the arguments are in the wrong order.

The thing I noticed is that when I use git add . it will not list the files that are being added because it will just go to the next line.

I suspect that I am having this problem because my files are not really being added.

I would appreciate any advice about how to correct this problem.

In my case the problem was I had forgotten to add the switch -m before the quoted comment. It may be a common error too, and the error message received is exactly the same

In my case, this error was due to special characters what I was considering double quotes as I copied the command from a web page.

Please try adding the double quotes git commit -m "initial commit". This will solve your problem.

Had this happen to me when committing from Xcode 6, after I had added a directory of files and subdirectories to the project folder. The problem was that, in the Commit sheet, in the left sidebar, I had checkmarked not only the root directory that I had added, but all of its descendants too. To solve the problem, I checkmarked only the root directory. This also committed all of the descendants, as desired, with no error.

I figured out mistake here use double quotations instead of single quotations.

change this

git commit -m 'initial commit'

to

git commit -m "initial commit"

Had this happen to me when committing from Xcode 6, after I had added a directory of files and subdirectories to the project folder. The problem was that, in the Commit sheet, in the left sidebar, I had checkmarked not only the root directory that I had added, but all of its descendants too. To solve the problem, I checkmarked only the root directory. This also committed all of the descendants, as desired, with no error.

The order line contentions are isolated by space. On the off chance that you need furnish a contention with a space in it, you should cite it. So use git commit - m "Initial commit". must follow this syntax.

if there are anybodys using python os to invoke git,u can use os.system('git commit -m " '+str(comment)+'"')

In my case, the problem was I used wrong alias for git commit -m. I used gcalias which dit not meant git commit -m

I would just like to add--

In windows the commit message should be in double quotes (git commit -m "initial commit" instead of git commit -m 'initial commit'), as I spent about an hour, just to figure out that single quote is not working in windows.

Please take note that in windows, it is very important that the git commit -m "initial commit" has the initial commit texts in double quotes. Single quotes will throw a path spec error.

I have encounter the same problem. my syntax has no problem. What I found is that I copied and pasted git commit -m "comments" from my note. I retype it, the command execute without issue. It turns out the - and " " are the problem when I copy paste to terminal.