How to list formerly-tracked files lingering in the index?

Question

I understand that, under some circumstances, a formerly-tracked file can remain in the index.

Is there some flag, marker, etc. that identifies those (and only those) files?

If so, is there a way to get a listing of those files by filtering all the entries in the index according to this flang/marker?

If not, if there some other way to get a listing of such files?

Answer 1

You can use git status --short (or git status for a more verbose output) to check if you have any changes left in the index.

Unless you are working on a new commit this output should be empty, i.e. there should be no uncommitted changes and no changes in the index.