summaryrefslogtreecommitdiff
path: root/Documentation/git-diff.txt
blob: dd1fb32786f6f467a1c46f2643fbc54d0390f2ec (plain)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
git-diff(1)
===========

NAME
----
git-diff - Show changes between commits, commit and working tree, etc


SYNOPSIS
--------
'git diff' [<common diff options>] <commit>{0,2} [--] [<path>...]

DESCRIPTION
-----------
Show changes between two trees, a tree and the working tree, a
tree and the index file, or the index file and the working tree.

'git diff' [--options] [--] [<path>...]::

	This form is to view the changes you made relative to
	the index (staging area for the next commit).  In other
	words, the differences are what you _could_ tell git to
	further add to the index but you still haven't.  You can
	stage these changes by using linkgit:git-add[1].
+
If exactly two paths are given and at least one points outside
the current repository, 'git diff' will compare the two files /
directories. This behavior can be forced by --no-index.

'git diff' [--options] --cached [<commit>] [--] [<path>...]::

	This form is to view the changes you staged for the next
	commit relative to the named <commit>.  Typically you
	would want comparison with the latest commit, so if you
	do not give <commit>, it defaults to HEAD.
	--staged is a synonym of --cached.

'git diff' [--options] <commit> [--] [<path>...]::

	This form is to view the changes you have in your
	working tree relative to the named <commit>.  You can
	use HEAD to compare it with the latest commit, or a
	branch name to compare with the tip of a different
	branch.

'git diff' [--options] <commit> <commit> [--] [<path>...]::

	This is to view the changes between two arbitrary
	<commit>.

'git diff' [--options] <commit>..<commit> [--] [<path>...]::

	This is synonymous to the previous form.  If <commit> on
	one side is omitted, it will have the same effect as
	using HEAD instead.

'git diff' [--options] <commit>\...<commit> [--] [<path>...]::

	This form is to view the changes on the branch containing
	and up to the second <commit>, starting at a common ancestor
	of both <commit>.  "git diff A\...B" is equivalent to
	"git diff $(git-merge-base A B) B".  You can omit any one
	of <commit>, which has the same effect as using HEAD instead.

Just in case if you are doing something exotic, it should be
noted that all of the <commit> in the above description, except
in the last two forms that use ".." notations, can be any
<tree>.  The third form ('git diff <commit> <commit>') can also
be used to compare two <blob> objects.

For a more complete list of ways to spell <commit>, see
"SPECIFYING REVISIONS" section in linkgit:gitrevisions[7].
However, "diff" is about comparing two _endpoints_, not ranges,
and the range notations ("<commit>..<commit>" and
"<commit>\...<commit>") do not mean a range as defined in the
"SPECIFYING RANGES" section in linkgit:gitrevisions[7].

OPTIONS
-------
:git-diff: 1
include::diff-options.txt[]

<path>...::
	The <paths> parameters, when given, are used to limit
	the diff to the named paths (you can give directory
	names and get diff for all files under them).


include::diff-format.txt[]

EXAMPLES
--------

Various ways to check your working tree::
+
------------
$ git diff            <1>
$ git diff --cached   <2>
$ git diff HEAD       <3>
------------
+
<1> Changes in the working tree not yet staged for the next commit.
<2> Changes between the index and your last commit; what you
would be committing if you run "git commit" without "-a" option.
<3> Changes in the working tree since your last commit; what you
would be committing if you run "git commit -a"

Comparing with arbitrary commits::
+
------------
$ git diff test            <1>
$ git diff HEAD -- ./test  <2>
$ git diff HEAD^ HEAD      <3>
------------
+
<1> Instead of using the tip of the current branch, compare with the
tip of "test" branch.
<2> Instead of comparing with the tip of "test" branch, compare with
the tip of the current branch, but limit the comparison to the
file "test".
<3> Compare the version before the last commit and the last commit.

Comparing branches::
+
------------
$ git diff topic master    <1>
$ git diff topic..master   <2>
$ git diff topic...master  <3>
------------
+
<1> Changes between the tips of the topic and the master branches.
<2> Same as above.
<3> Changes that occurred on the master branch since when the topic
branch was started off it.

Limiting the diff output::
+
------------
$ git diff --diff-filter=MRC            <1>
$ git diff --name-status                <2>
$ git diff arch/i386 include/asm-i386   <3>
------------
+
<1> Show only modification, rename and copy, but not addition
nor deletion.
<2> Show only names and the nature of change, but not actual
diff output.
<3> Limit diff output to named subtrees.

Munging the diff output::
+
------------
$ git diff --find-copies-harder -B -C  <1>
$ git diff -R                          <2>
------------
+
<1> Spend extra cycles to find renames, copies and complete
rewrites (very expensive).
<2> Output diff in reverse.

SEE ALSO
--------
diff(1),
linkgit:git-difftool[1],
linkgit:git-log[1],
linkgit:gitdiffcore[7],
linkgit:git-format-patch[1],
linkgit:git-apply[1]

Author
------
Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>

Documentation
--------------
Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.

GIT
---
Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite