title: Why do I get an error when I try to git commit --amend
body: <p>I wanted to modify the commit message on a commit I just made, so I tried to do:</p>
  
  <pre><code>git commit --amend
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>(as I normally do), but I got an error:</p>
  
  <pre><code>Unable to find modified files; please check git status
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Now this is strange, because I'm not trying to add/remove files from the commit, I just want to change the message, so it shouldn't matter whether I have modified files or not.</p>
  
  <p>Can anyone explain this error message (and ideally, how I can get past it)?</p>
  
  <p><strong>* EDIT *</strong></p>
  
  <p>Mellowcandle requested my git status; here it is (more or less):</p>
  
  <pre><code># On branch some_branch
  # Your branch is ahead of 'origin/some_branch' by 1 commit.
  #
  # Changes not staged for commit:
  #   (use "git add &lt;file&gt;..." to update what will be committed)
  #   (use "git checkout -- &lt;file&gt;..." to discard changes in working directory)
  #
  #   modified:   static/js/someFile.js
  #
  # Untracked files:
  #   (use "git add &lt;file&gt;..." to include in what will be committed)
  #
  #   some/other/file
  #   yet/another/file
  </code></pre>
  
  <p><strong>* EDIT #2 *</strong></p>
  
  <p>The same problem occurs when I try to <code>git rebase -i</code> (with <code>reword</code>).</p>
  
  <p><strong>* EDIT #3 *</strong></p>
  
  <p>Here's the output of a <code>git config --list</code> (slightly anonymized), as requested by GoZoner:</p>
  
  <pre><code>user.name=My Name
  user.email=email@example.com
  push.default=upstream
  core.repositoryformatversion=0
  core.filemode=true
  core.bare=false
  core.logallrefupdates=true
  remote.origin.fetch=+refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*
  remote.origin.url=git@github.com:someGitHubAccount/Apps.git
  branch.master.remote=origin
  branch.master.merge=refs/heads/master
  branch.deploy.remote=origin
  branch.deploy.merge=refs/heads/deploy
  ...*more branches that look similar*
  </code></pre>