paddyoloughlin&#x27;s explanation of the index is a good explanation.<p>I might add that if you didn&#x27;t have the index, then you could not make a commit that contained an add, a rename, and a deletion. If you think <i>far</i> too deeply about how Subversion handles these operations, it becomes clear that -conceptually- Subversion had an index&#x2F;&quot;staging area&quot;, too. Ferinstance, the output of &#x27;svn help add&#x27; says<p><pre><code>  add: Put files and directories under version control, scheduling
  them for addition to repository.  They will be added in next commit.
  usage: add PATH...
</code></pre>
What&#x27;s git&#x27;s index but a list of changes that have been enqueued to be performed with the next commit?<p>The big conceptual distinction between SVN and git is that with SVN you tie exactly <i>one</i> repository to a given working copy. In git you can tie <i>multiple</i> repos to a given working copy and (by default) one of those repos is stored in the same place as the working copy.<p>Does that make sense, or is the index still somewhat-to-rather unclear and&#x2F;or mystifying? (I mean, other than its kinda crappy name.)<p>&gt; ...can you point me at something <i>not</i> written by the git authors that explains what the hell is going on here and why?<p>If &quot;here&quot; is &quot;with git in general&quot;, I read the Git Book [0] <i>ages</i> ago, and combined what I learned from it with a fair amount of fucking around with my repo, and also with the contents of the gittutorial(7), gittutorial-2(7) and (parts of) gitglossary(7) man pages. [1]<p>From looking at the ToC of the Git Book, it <i>looks</i> like chapters 1, 2, 3, and 7 would be relevant to your interest. Chapters 5 and 10 <i>might</i> be relevant. I can&#x27;t offer any guarantees, as I last read the Git Book <i>ages</i> ago, and this look like it&#x27;s a new version... the one I read didn&#x27;t make any mention of Github.<p>Though, if you were asking about something more specific, I&#x27;m happy to take a stab at answering <i>that</i> question once I know what it is. :)<p>[0] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;git-scm.com&#x2F;book&#x2F;en&#x2F;v2" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;git-scm.com&#x2F;book&#x2F;en&#x2F;v2</a><p>[1] Even though you asked for things <i>not</i> written by the git guys, I got a fair bit of value from the official git tutorials. It&#x27;s also possible that you&#x27;ve overlooked them, so I bring them up.