1GIT-DIFF-FILES(1) Git Manual GIT-DIFF-FILES(1)
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6 git-diff-files - Compares files in the working tree and the index
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9 git-diff-files [-q] [-0|-1|-2|-3|-c|--cc|--no-index] [<common diff
10 options>] [<path>...]
11
13 Compares the files in the working tree and the index. When paths are
14 specified, compares only those named paths. Otherwise all entries in
15 the index are compared. The output format is the same as
16 "git-diff-index" and "git-diff-tree".
17
19 -p
20 Generate patch (see section on generating patches)
21 -u
23 Synonym for "-p".
24 -U<n>
26 Shorthand for "--unified=<n>".
27 --unified=<n>
29 Generate diffs with <n> lines of context instead of the usual
30 three. Implies "-p".
31 --raw
33 Generate the raw format.
34 --patch-with-raw
36 Synonym for "-p --raw".
37 --stat[=width[,name-width]]
39 Generate a diffstat. You can override the default output width for
40 80-column terminal by "--stat=width". The width of the filename
41 part can be controlled by giving another width to it separated by a
42 comma.
43 --numstat
45 Similar to --stat, but shows number of added and deleted lines in
46 decimal notation and pathname without abbreviation, to make it more
47 machine friendly. For binary files, outputs two - instead of saying
48 0 0.
49 --shortstat
51 Output only the last line of the --stat format containing total
52 number of modified files, as well as number of added and deleted
53 lines.
54 --summary
56 Output a condensed summary of extended header information such as
57 creations, renames and mode changes.
58 --patch-with-stat
60 Synonym for "-p --stat".
61 -z
63 NUL-line termination on output. This affects the --raw output field
64 terminator. Also output from commands such as "git-log" will be
65 delimited with NUL between commits.
66 --name-only
68 Show only names of changed files.
69 --name-status
71 Show only names and status of changed files.
72 --color
74 Show colored diff.
75 --no-color
77 Turn off colored diff, even when the configuration file gives the
78 default to color output.
79 --color-words
81 Show colored word diff, i.e. color words which have changed.
82 --no-renames
84 Turn off rename detection, even when the configuration file gives
85 the default to do so.
86 --check
88 Warn if changes introduce trailing whitespace or an indent that
89 uses a space before a tab.
90 --full-index
92 Instead of the first handful characters, show full object name of
93 pre- and post-image blob on the "index" line when generating a
94 patch format output.
95 --binary
97 In addition to --full-index, output "binary diff" that can be
98 applied with "git apply".
99 --abbrev[=<n>]
101 Instead of showing the full 40-byte hexadecimal object name in
102 diff-raw format output and diff-tree header lines, show only
103 handful hexdigits prefix. This is independent of --full-index
104 option above, which controls the diff-patch output format. Non
105 default number of digits can be specified with --abbrev=<n>.
106 -B
108 Break complete rewrite changes into pairs of delete and create.
109 -M
111 Detect renames.
112 -C
114 Detect copies as well as renames. See also --find-copies-harder.
115 --diff-filter=[ACDMRTUXB*]
117 Select only files that are Added (A), Copied (C), Deleted (D),
118 Modified (M), Renamed (R), have their type (mode) changed (T), are
119 Unmerged (U), are Unknown (X), or have had their pairing Broken
120 (B). Any combination of the filter characters may be used. When *
121 (All-or-none) is added to the combination, all paths are selected
122 if there is any file that matches other criteria in the comparison;
123 if there is no file that matches other criteria, nothing is
124 selected.
125 --find-copies-harder
127 For performance reasons, by default, -C option finds copies only if
128 the original file of the copy was modified in the same changeset.
129 This flag makes the command inspect unmodified files as candidates
130 for the source of copy. This is a very expensive operation for
131 large projects, so use it with caution. Giving more than one -C
132 option has the same effect.
133 -l<num>
135 -M and -C options require O(n^2) processing time where n is the
136 number of potential rename/copy targets. This option prevents
137 rename/copy detection from running if the number of rename/copy
138 targets exceeds the specified number.
139 -S<string>
141 Look for differences that contain the change in <string>.
142 --pickaxe-all
144 When -S finds a change, show all the changes in that changeset, not
145 just the files that contain the change in <string>.
146 --pickaxe-regex
148 Make the <string> not a plain string but an extended POSIX regex to
149 match.
150 -O<orderfile>
152 Output the patch in the order specified in the <orderfile>, which
153 has one shell glob pattern per line.
154 -R
156 Swap two inputs; that is, show differences from index or on-disk
157 file to tree contents.
158 --text
160 Treat all files as text.
161 -a
163 Shorthand for "--text".
164 --ignore-space-at-eol
166 Ignore changes in white spaces at EOL.
167 --ignore-space-change
169 Ignore changes in amount of white space. This ignores white space
170 at line end, and consider all other sequences of one or more white
171 space characters to be equivalent.
172 -b
174 Shorthand for "--ignore-space-change".
175 --ignore-all-space
177 Ignore white space when comparing lines. This ignores difference
178 even if one line has white space where the other line has none.
179 -w
181 Shorthand for "--ignore-all-space".
182 --exit-code
184 Make the program exit with codes similar to diff(1). That is, it
185 exits with 1 if there were differences and 0 means no differences.
186 --quiet
188 Disable all output of the program. Implies --exit-code.
189 --ext-diff
191 Allow an external diff helper to be executed. If you set an
192 external diff driver with gitlink:gitattributes(5), you need to use
193 this option with gitlink:git-log(1) and friends.
194 --no-ext-diff
196 Disallow external diff drivers.
197 For more detailed explanation on these common options, see also
198 diffcore documentation[1].
199 -1 -2 -3 or --base --ours --theirs, and -0
201 Diff against the "base" version, "our branch" or "their branch"
202 respectively. With these options, diffs for merged entries are not
203 shown.
204 The default is to diff against our branch (-2) and the cleanly
206 resolved paths. The option -0 can be given to omit diff output for
207 unmerged entries and just show "Unmerged".
208 -c,--cc
210 This compares stage 2 (our branch), stage 3 (their branch) and the
211 working tree file and outputs a combined diff, similar to the way
212 diff-tree shows a merge commit with these flags.
213 --no-index
215 Compare the two given files / directories.
216 -q
218 Remain silent even on nonexistent files
219
221 The output format from "git-diff-index", "git-diff-tree" and
222 "git-diff-files" are very similar.
223 These commands all compare two sets of things; what is compared
225 differs:
226 git-diff-index <tree-ish>
228 compares the <tree-ish> and the files on the filesystem.
229 git-diff-index --cached <tree-ish>
231 compares the <tree-ish> and the index.
232 git-diff-tree [-r] <tree-ish-1> <tree-ish-2> [<pattern>...]
234 compares the trees named by the two arguments.
235 git-diff-files [<pattern>...]
237 compares the index and the files on the filesystem.
238 An output line is formatted this way:
239 in-place edit :100644 100644 bcd1234... 0123456... M file0
243 copy-edit :100644 100644 abcd123... 1234567... C68 file1 file2
244 rename-edit :100644 100644 abcd123... 1234567... R86 file1 file3
245 create :000000 100644 0000000... 1234567... A file4
246 delete :100644 000000 1234567... 0000000... D file5
247 unmerged :000000 000000 0000000... 0000000... U file6
248 That is, from the left to the right:
250 1. a colon.
253 2. mode for "src"; 000000 if creation or unmerged.
255 3. a space.
257 4. mode for "dst"; 000000 if deletion or unmerged.
259 5. a space.
261 6. sha1 for "src"; 0{40} if creation or unmerged.
263 7. a space.
265 8. sha1 for "dst"; 0{40} if creation, unmerged or "look at work
267 tree".
268 9. a space.
270 10. status, followed by optional "score" number.
272 11. a tab or a NUL when -z option is used.
274 12. path for "src"
276 13. a tab or a NUL when -z option is used; only exists for C or R.
278 14. path for "dst"; only exists for C or R.
280 15. an LF or a NUL when -z option is used, to terminate the record.
282 <sha1> is shown as all 0´s if a file is new on the filesystem and it is
283 out of sync with the index.
284 Example:
286 :100644 100644 5be4a4...... 000000...... M file.c
290 When -z option is not used, TAB, LF, and backslash characters in
292 pathnames are represented as \t, \n, and \\, respectively.
293
295 "git-diff-tree" and "git-diff-files" can take -c or --cc option to
296 generate diff output also for merge commits. The output differs from
297 the format described above in the following way:
298 1. there is a colon for each parent
301 2. there are more "src" modes and "src" sha1
303 3. status is concatenated status characters for each parent
305 4. no optional "score" number
307 5. single path, only for "dst"
309 Example:
310 ::100644 100644 100644 fabadb8... cc95eb0... 4866510... MM describe.c
314 Note that combined diff lists only files which were modified from all
316 parents.
317
319 When "git-diff-index", "git-diff-tree", or "git-diff-files" are run
320 with a -p option, they do not produce the output described above;
321 instead they produce a patch file. You can customize the creation of
322 such patches via the GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF and the GIT_DIFF_OPTS
323 environment variables.
324 What the -p option produces is slightly different from the traditional
326 diff format.
327 1. It is preceded with a "git diff" header, that looks like this:
330 diff --git a/file1 b/file2
333 The a/ and b/ filenames are the same unless rename/copy is
334 involved. Especially, even for a creation or a deletion, /dev/null
335 is not used in place of a/ or b/ filenames.
336 When rename/copy is involved, file1 and file2 show the name of the
338 source file of the rename/copy and the name of the file that
339 rename/copy produces, respectively.
340 2. It is followed by one or more extended header lines:
342 old mode <mode>
345 new mode <mode>
346 deleted file mode <mode>
347 new file mode <mode>
348 copy from <path>
349 copy to <path>
350 rename from <path>
351 rename to <path>
352 similarity index <number>
353 dissimilarity index <number>
354 index <hash>..<hash> <mode>
355 3. TAB, LF, double quote and backslash characters in pathnames are
357 represented as \t, \n, \" and \\, respectively. If there is need
358 for such substitution then the whole pathname is put in double
359 quotes.
360 The similarity index is the percentage of unchanged lines, and the
361 dissimilarity index is the percentage of changed lines. It is a rounded
362 down integer, followed by a percent sign. The similarity index value of
363 100% is thus reserved for two equal files, while 100% dissimilarity
364 means that no line from the old file made it into the new one.
365
367 git-diff-tree and git-diff-files can take -c or --cc option to produce
368 combined diff, which looks like this:
369 diff --combined describe.c
373 index fabadb8,cc95eb0..4866510
374 --- a/describe.c
375 +++ b/describe.c
376 @@@ -98,20 -98,12 +98,20 @@@
377 return (a_date > b_date) ? -1 : (a_date == b_date) ? 0 : 1;
378 }
379 - static void describe(char *arg)
381 -static void describe(struct commit *cmit, int last_one)
382 ++static void describe(char *arg, int last_one)
383 {
384 + unsigned char sha1[20];
385 + struct commit *cmit;
386 struct commit_list *list;
387 static int initialized = 0;
388 struct commit_name *n;
389 + if (get_sha1(arg, sha1) < 0)
391 + usage(describe_usage);
392 + cmit = lookup_commit_reference(sha1);
393 + if (!cmit)
394 + usage(describe_usage);
395 +
396 if (!initialized) {
397 initialized = 1;
398 for_each_ref(get_name);
399 1. It is preceded with a "git diff" header, that looks like this
402 (when -c option is used):
403 diff --combined file
406 or like this (when --cc option is used):
407 diff --c file
410 2. It is followed by one or more extended header lines (this example
412 shows a merge with two parents):
413 index <hash>,<hash>..<hash>
416 mode <mode>,<mode>..<mode>
417 new file mode <mode>
418 deleted file mode <mode>,<mode>
419 The mode <mode>,<mode>..<mode> line appears only if at least one of
420 the <mode> is different from the rest. Extended headers with
421 information about detected contents movement (renames and copying
422 detection) are designed to work with diff of two <tree-ish> and are
423 not used by combined diff format.
424 3. It is followed by two-line from-file/to-file header
426 --- a/file
429 +++ b/file
430 Similar to two-line header for traditional unified diff format,
431 /dev/null is used to signal created or deleted files.
432 4. Chunk header format is modified to prevent people from
434 accidentally feeding it to patch -p1. Combined diff format was
435 created for review of merge commit changes, and was not meant for
436 apply. The change is similar to the change in the extended index
437 header:
438 @@@ <from-file-range> <from-file-range> <to-file-range> @@@
441 There are (number of parents + 1) @ characters in the chunk header
442 for combined diff format.
443 Unlike the traditional unified diff format, which shows two files A and
444 B with a single column that has - (minus — appears in A but removed in
445 B), + (plus — missing in A but added to B), or " " (space — unchanged)
446 prefix, this format compares two or more files file1, file2,... with
447 one file X, and shows how X differs from each of fileN. One column for
448 each of fileN is prepended to the output line to note how X´s line is
449 different from it.
450 A - character in the column N means that the line appears in fileN but
452 it does not appear in the result. A + character in the column N means
453 that the line appears in the last file, and fileN does not have that
454 line (in other words, the line was added, from the point of view of
455 that parent).
456 In the above example output, the function signature was changed from
458 both files (hence two - removals from both file1 and file2, plus + to
459 mean one line that was added does not appear in either file1 nor
460 file2). Also two other lines are the same from file1 but do not appear
461 in file2 (hence prefixed with ).
462 When shown by git diff-tree -c, it compares the parents of a merge
464 commit with the merge result (i.e. file1..fileN are the parents). When
465 shown by git diff-files -c, it compares the two unresolved merge
466 parents with the working tree file (i.e. file1 is stage 2 aka "our
467 version", file2 is stage 3 aka "their version").
468
470 Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
471
473 Documentation by David Greaves, Junio C Hamano and the git-list
474 <git@vger.kernel.org>.
475
477 Part of the git(7) suite
478
480 1. diffcore documentation
481 diffcore.html
482Git 1.5.3.3 10/09/2007 GIT-DIFF-FILES(1)