title: What does 'git commit' mean when it says 'create mode ...' on stdout?
body: <p>EDIT:</p>
  <p>See <a href="https://superuser.com/a/904053/98033">Danny Lin's git-store-meta</a> as a proposed solution to the versioning-metadata problem described below. I have yet to test it as of 2015-05-13.</p>
  <p>ORIGINAL QUESTION:</p>
  <p>Do the <code>create|delete mode ...</code> lines in the <code>git commit</code> output (example below) represent some sort of metadata control? (And/or, what do these lines represent in general?) These appear to be unix-like file-permission codes/representations, although I'm not sure -exactly- the mapping, but the bigger question is: what if anything does git <strong>do</strong> with these codes/settings/values? Does git attempt to leverage these saved codes in any way to prove helpful to solve metadata problems my per superuser.com question <a href="https://superuser.com/questions/367729/how-to-reuse-extend-etckeepers-metadata-engine-for-git-control-of-non-etc-file">&quot;How to reuse/extend etckeeper's metadata engine for git control of non-/etc filesystems, or extend git natively with said capability?&quot;</a>?  I'm aware that git doesn't control all filesystem metadata.</p>
  <p>[Git does apparently, already control the &quot;executeable attribute/perm&quot; of a file (apparently portable for most OSes) and some other things like filesystem links. I'm seeking a more Unix/Linux/BSD/DarwinMacOSX-specific control mechanism for more/all metadata, namely all permissions and user/group ownership. ACLs and other metadata control optional. Trying to see if the stuff git <em>is</em> currently storing might prove useful to solve this problem.]</p>
  <pre><code>root@node1 Dec 15 09:40:45 ~/.../sandbox-1# git status
  # On branch master
  # Changes to be committed:
  #   (use &quot;git reset HEAD &lt;file&gt;...&quot; to unstage)
  #
  #   modified:   README
  #   new file:   dummy-file-will-be-removed
  #   deleted:    ownerfile
  #
  root@node1 Dec 15 09:40:45 ~/.../sandbox-1# git commit -m &quot;testing git&quot;
  [master c5b0201] testing git
   2 files changed, 1 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
   create mode 100644 dummy-file-will-be-removed
   delete mode 100644 ownerfile
  root@node1 Dec 15 09:41:55 ~/.../sandbox-1# 
  [...]
  root@node1 Dec 15 11:33:11 ~# git --version
  git version 1.7.4.1
  root@node1 Dec 15 11:33:14 ~# 
  </code></pre>