title: Why do I have to add the files being tracked before committing?
body: <p>I'm new to git for source control.  I want to make sure I'm understanding everything as I go though, and very early I hit something that seems strange.</p>
  
  <p>Here's what I'm doing:</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li>Create a new repository on GitHub.  It offers to make a "standard" C# .gitignore file, which sounds great, so I say yes.</li>
  <li>I see that there is both a Readme and .gitignore created with the repository.</li>
  <li>I clone this repo to my machine using <code>git clone [repo location] [local folder]</code></li>
  <li>I edit the .gitignore file to add some additional ignored files and folders.</li>
  <li>I enter <code>git commit</code>, which yields a message that says "Changes not staged for commit" but lists .gitignore as being modified.</li>
  </ol>
  
  <p>So ultimately I add it, commit and push back to the origin, which shows my changes on GitHub.  So all is well.</p>
  
  <p>This is sort of confusing to me.  If .gitignore wasn't being tracked, how in the world did it get pulled down using <code>git clone</code>?  Why did I have to add it manually before it allowed me to commit the changes?</p>