1GIT-DIFF(1) Git Manual GIT-DIFF(1)
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6 git-diff - Show changes between commits, commit and working tree, etc
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9 git-diff [<common diff options>] <commit>{0,2} [--] [<path>...]
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12 Show changes between two trees, a tree and the working tree, a tree and
13 the index file, or the index file and the working tree.
14 git-diff [--options] [--] [<path>...]
16 This form is to view the changes you made relative to the index
17 (staging area for the next commit). In other words, the differences
18 are what you could tell git to further add to the index but you
19 still haven´t. You can stage these changes by using git-add(1).
20 If exactly two paths are given, and at least one is untracked,
22 compare the two files / directories. This behavior can be forced by
23 --no-index.
24 git-diff [--options] --cached [<commit>] [--] [<path>...]
26 This form is to view the changes you staged for the next commit
27 relative to the named <commit>. Typically you would want comparison
28 with the latest commit, so if you do not give <commit>, it defaults
29 to HEAD.
30 git-diff [--options] <commit> [--] [<path>...]
32 This form is to view the changes you have in your working tree
33 relative to the named <commit>. You can use HEAD to compare it with
34 the latest commit, or a branch name to compare with the tip of a
35 different branch.
36 git-diff [--options] <commit> <commit> [--] [<path>...]
38 This is to view the changes between two arbitrary <commit>.
39 git-diff [--options] <commit>..<commit> [--] [<path>...]
41 This is synonymous to the previous form. If <commit> on one side is
42 omitted, it will have the same effect as using HEAD instead.
43 git-diff [--options] <commit>...<commit> [--] [<path>...]
45 This form is to view the changes on the branch containing and up to
46 the second <commit>, starting at a common ancestor of both
47 <commit>. "git-diff A...B" is equivalent to "git-diff
48 $(git-merge-base A B) B". You can omit any one of <commit>, which
49 has the same effect as using HEAD instead.
50 Just in case if you are doing something exotic, it should be noted that
51 all of the <commit> in the above description, except for the last two
52 forms that use ".." notations, can be any <tree-ish>.
53 For a more complete list of ways to spell <commit>, see "SPECIFYING
55 REVISIONS" section in git-rev-parse(1). However, "diff" is about
56 comparing two endpoints, not ranges, and the range notations
57 ("<commit>..<commit>" and "<commit>...<commit>") do not mean a range as
58 defined in the "SPECIFYING RANGES" section in git-rev-parse(1).
59
61 -p
62 Generate patch (see section on generating patches)
63 -u
65 Synonym for "-p".
66 -U<n>
68 Shorthand for "--unified=<n>".
69 --unified=<n>
71 Generate diffs with <n> lines of context instead of the usual
72 three. Implies "-p".
73 --raw
75 Generate the raw format.
76 --patch-with-raw
78 Synonym for "-p --raw".
79 --stat[=width[,name-width]]
81 Generate a diffstat. You can override the default output width for
82 80-column terminal by "--stat=width". The width of the filename
83 part can be controlled by giving another width to it separated by a
84 comma.
85 --numstat
87 Similar to --stat, but shows number of added and deleted lines in
88 decimal notation and pathname without abbreviation, to make it more
89 machine friendly. For binary files, outputs two - instead of saying
90 0 0.
91 --shortstat
93 Output only the last line of the --stat format containing total
94 number of modified files, as well as number of added and deleted
95 lines.
96 --summary
98 Output a condensed summary of extended header information such as
99 creations, renames and mode changes.
100 --patch-with-stat
102 Synonym for "-p --stat".
103 -z
105 NUL-line termination on output. This affects the --raw output field
106 terminator. Also output from commands such as "git-log" will be
107 delimited with NUL between commits.
108 --name-only
110 Show only names of changed files.
111 --name-status
113 Show only names and status of changed files.
114 --color
116 Show colored diff.
117 --no-color
119 Turn off colored diff, even when the configuration file gives the
120 default to color output.
121 --color-words
123 Show colored word diff, i.e. color words which have changed.
124 --no-renames
126 Turn off rename detection, even when the configuration file gives
127 the default to do so.
128 --check
130 Warn if changes introduce trailing whitespace or an indent that
131 uses a space before a tab.
132 --full-index
134 Instead of the first handful characters, show full object name of
135 pre- and post-image blob on the "index" line when generating a
136 patch format output.
137 --binary
139 In addition to --full-index, output "binary diff" that can be
140 applied with "git apply".
141 --abbrev[=<n>]
143 Instead of showing the full 40-byte hexadecimal object name in
144 diff-raw format output and diff-tree header lines, show only
145 handful hexdigits prefix. This is independent of --full-index
146 option above, which controls the diff-patch output format. Non
147 default number of digits can be specified with --abbrev=<n>.
148 -B
150 Break complete rewrite changes into pairs of delete and create.
151 -M
153 Detect renames.
154 -C
156 Detect copies as well as renames. See also --find-copies-harder.
157 --diff-filter=[ACDMRTUXB*]
159 Select only files that are Added (A), Copied (C), Deleted (D),
160 Modified (M), Renamed (R), have their type (mode) changed (T), are
161 Unmerged (U), are Unknown (X), or have had their pairing Broken
162 (B). Any combination of the filter characters may be used. When *
163 (All-or-none) is added to the combination, all paths are selected
164 if there is any file that matches other criteria in the comparison;
165 if there is no file that matches other criteria, nothing is
166 selected.
167 --find-copies-harder
169 For performance reasons, by default, -C option finds copies only if
170 the original file of the copy was modified in the same changeset.
171 This flag makes the command inspect unmodified files as candidates
172 for the source of copy. This is a very expensive operation for
173 large projects, so use it with caution. Giving more than one -C
174 option has the same effect.
175 -l<num>
177 -M and -C options require O(n^2) processing time where n is the
178 number of potential rename/copy targets. This option prevents
179 rename/copy detection from running if the number of rename/copy
180 targets exceeds the specified number.
181 -S<string>
183 Look for differences that contain the change in <string>.
184 --pickaxe-all
186 When -S finds a change, show all the changes in that changeset, not
187 just the files that contain the change in <string>.
188 --pickaxe-regex
190 Make the <string> not a plain string but an extended POSIX regex to
191 match.
192 -O<orderfile>
194 Output the patch in the order specified in the <orderfile>, which
195 has one shell glob pattern per line.
196 -R
198 Swap two inputs; that is, show differences from index or on-disk
199 file to tree contents.
200 --text
202 Treat all files as text.
203 -a
205 Shorthand for "--text".
206 --ignore-space-at-eol
208 Ignore changes in white spaces at EOL.
209 --ignore-space-change
211 Ignore changes in amount of white space. This ignores white space
212 at line end, and consider all other sequences of one or more white
213 space characters to be equivalent.
214 -b
216 Shorthand for "--ignore-space-change".
217 --ignore-all-space
219 Ignore white space when comparing lines. This ignores difference
220 even if one line has white space where the other line has none.
221 -w
223 Shorthand for "--ignore-all-space".
224 --exit-code
226 Make the program exit with codes similar to diff(1). That is, it
227 exits with 1 if there were differences and 0 means no differences.
228 --quiet
230 Disable all output of the program. Implies --exit-code.
231 --ext-diff
233 Allow an external diff helper to be executed. If you set an
234 external diff driver with gitlink:gitattributes(5), you need to use
235 this option with gitlink:git-log(1) and friends.
236 --no-ext-diff
238 Disallow external diff drivers.
239 For more detailed explanation on these common options, see also
240 diffcore documentation[1].
241 <path>...
243 The <paths> parameters, when given, are used to limit the diff to
244 the named paths (you can give directory names and get diff for all
245 files under them).
246
248 Various ways to check your working tree
249 $ git diff [1m(1)
252 $ git diff --cached [1m(2)
253 $ git diff HEAD [1m(3)
254 1. Changes in the working tree not yet staged for the next commit.
257 2. Changes between the index and your last commit; what you would
258 be committing if you run "git commit" without "-a" option.
259 3. Changes in the working tree since your last commit; what you
260 would be committing if you run "git commit -a"
261 Comparing with arbitrary commits
263 $ git diff test [1m(1)
266 $ git diff HEAD -- ./test [1m(2)
267 $ git diff HEAD^ HEAD [1m(3)
268 1. Instead of using the tip of the current branch, compare with the
271 tip of "test" branch.
272 2. Instead of comparing with the tip of "test" branch, compare with
273 the tip of the current branch, but limit the comparison to the file
274 "test".
275 3. Compare the version before the last commit and the last commit.
276 Comparing branches
278 $ git diff topic master [1m(1)
281 $ git diff topic..master [1m(2)
282 $ git diff topic...master [1m(3)
283 1. Changes between the tips of the topic and the master branches.
286 2. Same as above.
287 3. Changes that occured on the master branch since when the topic
288 branch was started off it.
289 Limiting the diff output
291 $ git diff --diff-filter=MRC [1m(1)
294 $ git diff --name-status [1m(2)
295 $ git diff arch/i386 include/asm-i386 [1m(3)
296 1. Show only modification, rename and copy, but not addition nor
299 deletion.
300 2. Show only names and the nature of change, but not actual diff
301 output.
302 3. Limit diff output to named subtrees.
303 Munging the diff output
305 $ git diff --find-copies-harder -B -C [1m(1)
308 $ git diff -R [1m(2)
309 1. Spend extra cycles to find renames, copies and complete rewrites
312 (very expensive).
313 2. Output diff in reverse.
314
316 Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
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319 Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.
320
322 Part of the git(7) suite
323
325 1. diffcore documentation
326 diffcore.html
327Git 1.5.3.3 10/09/2007 GIT-DIFF(1)