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 git-add(1).
If exactly two paths are given, and at least one is untracked,
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.
-
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
for the last two forms that use ".." notations, can be any
<tree-ish>.
For a more complete list of ways to spell <commit>, see
"SPECIFYING REVISIONS" section in git-rev-parse(1).
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 git-rev-parse(1).
OPTIONS
-
-p
-
Generate patch (see section on generating patches).
This is the default.
-
-u
-
Synonym for "-p".
-
-U<n>
-
Shorthand for "--unified=<n>".
-
--unified=<n>
-
Generate diffs with <n> lines of context instead of
the usual three. Implies "-p".
-
--raw
-
Generate the raw format.
-
--patch-with-raw
-
Synonym for "-p --raw".
-
--stat[=width[,name-width]]
-
Generate a diffstat. You can override the default
output width for 80-column terminal by "--stat=width".
The width of the filename part can be controlled by
giving another width to it separated by a comma.
-
--numstat
-
Similar to --stat, but shows number of added and
deleted lines in decimal notation and pathname without
abbreviation, to make it more machine friendly. For
binary files, outputs two - instead of saying
0 0.
-
--shortstat
-
Output only the last line of the --stat format containing total
number of modified files, as well as number of added and deleted
lines.
-
--summary
-
Output a condensed summary of extended header information
such as creations, renames and mode changes.
-
--patch-with-stat
-
Synonym for "-p --stat".
-
-z
-
NUL-line termination on output. This affects the --raw
output field terminator. Also output from commands such
as "git-log" will be delimited with NUL between commits.
-
--name-only
-
Show only names of changed files.
-
--name-status
-
Show only names and status of changed files.
-
--color
-
Show colored diff.
-
--no-color
-
Turn off colored diff, even when the configuration file
gives the default to color output.
-
--color-words
-
Show colored word diff, i.e. color words which have changed.
-
--no-renames
-
Turn off rename detection, even when the configuration
file gives the default to do so.
-
--check
-
Warn if changes introduce trailing whitespace
or an indent that uses a space before a tab. Exits with
non-zero status if problems are found. Not compatible with
--exit-code.
-
--full-index
-
Instead of the first handful characters, show full
object name of pre- and post-image blob on the "index"
line when generating a patch format output.
-
--binary
-
In addition to --full-index, output "binary diff" that
can be applied with "git apply".
-
--abbrev[=<n>]
-
Instead of showing the full 40-byte hexadecimal object
name in diff-raw format output and diff-tree header
lines, show only handful hexdigits prefix. This is
independent of --full-index option above, which controls
the diff-patch output format. Non default number of
digits can be specified with --abbrev=<n>.
-
-B
-
Break complete rewrite changes into pairs of delete and create.
-
-M
-
Detect renames.
-
-C
-
Detect copies as well as renames. See also --find-copies-harder.
-
--diff-filter=[ACDMRTUXB*]
-
Select only files that are Added (A), Copied (C),
Deleted (D), Modified (M), Renamed (R), have their
type (mode) changed (T), are Unmerged (U), are
Unknown (X), or have had their pairing Broken (B).
Any combination of the filter characters may be used.
When * (All-or-none) is added to the combination, all
paths are selected if there is any file that matches
other criteria in the comparison; if there is no file
that matches other criteria, nothing is selected.
-
--find-copies-harder
-
For performance reasons, by default, -C option finds copies only
if the original file of the copy was modified in the same
changeset. This flag makes the command
inspect unmodified files as candidates for the source of
copy. This is a very expensive operation for large
projects, so use it with caution. Giving more than one
-C option has the same effect.
-
-l<num>
-
-M and -C options require O(n^2) processing time where n
is the number of potential rename/copy targets. This
option prevents rename/copy detection from running if
the number of rename/copy targets exceeds the specified
number.
-
-S<string>
-
Look for differences that contain the change in <string>.
-
--pickaxe-all
-
When -S finds a change, show all the changes in that
changeset, not just the files that contain the change
in <string>.
-
--pickaxe-regex
-
Make the <string> not a plain string but an extended POSIX
regex to match.
-
-O<orderfile>
-
Output the patch in the order specified in the
<orderfile>, which has one shell glob pattern per line.
-
-R
-
Swap two inputs; that is, show differences from index or
on-disk file to tree contents.
-
--text
-
Treat all files as text.
-
-a
-
Shorthand for "--text".
-
--ignore-space-at-eol
-
Ignore changes in whitespace at EOL.
-
--ignore-space-change
-
Ignore changes in amount of whitespace. This ignores whitespace
at line end, and considers all other sequences of one or
more whitespace characters to be equivalent.
-
-b
-
Shorthand for "--ignore-space-change".
-
--ignore-all-space
-
Ignore whitespace when comparing lines. This ignores
differences even if one line has whitespace where the other
line has none.
-
-w
-
Shorthand for "--ignore-all-space".
-
--exit-code
-
Make the program exit with codes similar to diff(1).
That is, it exits with 1 if there were differences and
0 means no differences.
-
--quiet
-
Disable all output of the program. Implies --exit-code.
-
--ext-diff
-
Allow an external diff helper to be executed. If you set an
external diff driver with gitattributes(5), you need
to use this option with git-log(1) and friends.
-
--no-ext-diff
-
Disallow external diff drivers.
-
--src-prefix=<prefix>
-
Show the given source prefix instead of "a/".
-
--dst-prefix=<prefix>
-
Show the given destination prefix instead of "b/".
-
--no-prefix
-
Do not show any source or destination prefix.
For more detailed explanation on these common options, see also
diffcore documentation.
-
<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).
Output format
The output format from "git-diff-index", "git-diff-tree",
"git-diff-files" and "git diff --raw" are very similar.
These commands all compare two sets of things; what is
compared differs:
-
git-diff-index <tree-ish>
-
compares the <tree-ish> and the files on the filesystem.
-
git-diff-index --cached <tree-ish>
-
compares the <tree-ish> and the index.
-
git-diff-tree [-r] <tree-ish-1> <tree-ish-2> [<pattern>…]
-
compares the trees named by the two arguments.
-
git-diff-files [<pattern>…]
-
compares the index and the files on the filesystem.
An output line is formatted this way:
in-place edit :100644 100644 bcd1234... 0123456... M file0
copy-edit :100644 100644 abcd123... 1234567... C68 file1 file2
rename-edit :100644 100644 abcd123... 1234567... R86 file1 file3
create :000000 100644 0000000... 1234567... A file4
delete :100644 000000 1234567... 0000000... D file5
unmerged :000000 000000 0000000... 0000000... U file6
That is, from the left to the right:
-
a colon.
-
mode for "src"; 000000 if creation or unmerged.
-
a space.
-
mode for "dst"; 000000 if deletion or unmerged.
-
a space.
-
sha1 for "src"; 0{40} if creation or unmerged.
-
a space.
-
sha1 for "dst"; 0{40} if creation, unmerged or "look at work tree".
-
a space.
-
status, followed by optional "score" number.
-
a tab or a NUL when -z option is used.
-
path for "src"
-
a tab or a NUL when -z option is used; only exists for C or R.
-
path for "dst"; only exists for C or R.
-
an LF or a NUL when -z option is used, to terminate the record.
<sha1> is shown as all 0's if a file is new on the filesystem
and it is out of sync with the index.
Example:
:100644 100644 5be4a4...... 000000...... M file.c
When -z option is not used, TAB, LF, and backslash characters
in pathnames are represented as \t, \n, and \\,
respectively.
diff format for merges
"git-diff-tree", "git-diff-files" and "git-diff --raw"
can take -c or --cc option
to generate diff output also for merge commits. The output differs
from the format described above in the following way:
-
there is a colon for each parent
-
there are more "src" modes and "src" sha1
-
status is concatenated status characters for each parent
-
no optional "score" number
-
single path, only for "dst"
Example:
::100644 100644 100644 fabadb8... cc95eb0... 4866510... MM describe.c
Note that combined diff lists only files which were modified from
all parents.
Generating patches with -p
When "git-diff-index", "git-diff-tree", or "git-diff-files" are run
with a -p option, "git diff" without the --raw option, or
"git log" with the "-p" option, they
do not produce the output described above; instead they produce a
patch file. You can customize the creation of such patches via the
GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF and the GIT_DIFF_OPTS environment variables.
What the -p option produces is slightly different from the traditional
diff format.
-
It is preceded with a "git diff" header, that looks like
this:
diff --git a/file1 b/file2
The a/ and b/ filenames are the same unless rename/copy is
involved. Especially, even for a creation or a deletion,
/dev/null is _not_ used in place of a/ or b/ filenames.
When rename/copy is involved, file1 and file2 show the
name of the source file of the rename/copy and the name of
the file that rename/copy produces, respectively.
-
It is followed by one or more extended header lines:
old mode <mode>
new mode <mode>
deleted file mode <mode>
new file mode <mode>
copy from <path>
copy to <path>
rename from <path>
rename to <path>
similarity index <number>
dissimilarity index <number>
index <hash>..<hash> <mode>
-
TAB, LF, double quote and backslash characters in pathnames
are represented as \t, \n, \" and \\, respectively.
If there is need for such substitution then the whole
pathname is put in double quotes.
The similarity index is the percentage of unchanged lines, and
the dissimilarity index is the percentage of changed lines. It
is a rounded down integer, followed by a percent sign. The
similarity index value of 100% is thus reserved for two equal
files, while 100% dissimilarity means that no line from the old
file made it into the new one.
combined diff format
"git-diff-tree", "git-diff-files" and "git-diff" can take -c or
--cc option to produce combined diff. For showing a merge commit
with "git log -p", this is the default format.
A combined diff format looks like this:
diff --combined describe.c
index fabadb8,cc95eb0..4866510
--- a/describe.c
+++ b/describe.c
@@@ -98,20 -98,12 +98,20 @@@
return (a_date > b_date) ? -1 : (a_date == b_date) ? 0 : 1;
}
- static void describe(char *arg)
-static void describe(struct commit *cmit, int last_one)
++static void describe(char *arg, int last_one)
{
+ unsigned char sha1[20];
+ struct commit *cmit;
struct commit_list *list;
static int initialized = 0;
struct commit_name *n;
+ if (get_sha1(arg, sha1) < 0)
+ usage(describe_usage);
+ cmit = lookup_commit_reference(sha1);
+ if (!cmit)
+ usage(describe_usage);
+
if (!initialized) {
initialized = 1;
for_each_ref(get_name);
-
It is preceded with a "git diff" header, that looks like
this (when -c option is used):
or like this (when --cc option is used):
-
It is followed by one or more extended header lines
(this example shows a merge with two parents):
index <hash>,<hash>..<hash>
mode <mode>,<mode>..<mode>
new file mode <mode>
deleted file mode <mode>,<mode>
The mode <mode>,<mode>..<mode> line appears only if at least one of
the <mode> is different from the rest. Extended headers with
information about detected contents movement (renames and
copying detection) are designed to work with diff of two
<tree-ish> and are not used by combined diff format.
-
It is followed by two-line from-file/to-file header
Similar to two-line header for traditional unified diff
format, /dev/null is used to signal created or deleted
files.
-
Chunk header format is modified to prevent people from
accidentally feeding it to patch -p1. Combined diff format
was created for review of merge commit changes, and was not
meant for apply. The change is similar to the change in the
extended index header:
@@@ <from-file-range> <from-file-range> <to-file-range> @@@
There are (number of parents + 1) @ characters in the chunk
header for combined diff format.
Unlike the traditional unified diff format, which shows two
files A and B with a single column that has - (minus —
appears in A but removed in B), + (plus — missing in A but
added to B), or " " (space — unchanged) prefix, this format
compares two or more files file1, file2,… with one file X, and
shows how X differs from each of fileN. One column for each of
fileN is prepended to the output line to note how X's line is
different from it.
A - character in the column N means that the line appears in
fileN but it does not appear in the result. A + character
in the column N means that the line appears in the last file,
and fileN does not have that line (in other words, the line was
added, from the point of view of that parent).
In the above example output, the function signature was changed
from both files (hence two - removals from both file1 and
file2, plus ++ to mean one line that was added does not appear
in either file1 nor file2). Also two other lines are the same
from file1 but do not appear in file2 (hence prefixed with +).
When shown by git diff-tree -c, it compares the parents of a
merge commit with the merge result (i.e. file1..fileN are the
parents). When shown by git diff-files -c, it compares the
two unresolved merge parents with the working tree file
(i.e. file1 is stage 2 aka "our version", file2 is stage 3 aka
"their version").
other diff formats
The --summary option describes newly added, deleted, renamed and
copied files. The --stat option adds diffstat(1) graph to the
output. These options can be combined with other options, such as
-p, and are meant for human consumption.
When showing a change that involves a rename or a copy, --stat output
formats the pathnames compactly by combining common prefix and suffix of
the pathnames. For example, a change that moves arch/i386/Makefile to
arch/x86/Makefile while modifying 4 lines will be shown like this:
arch/{i386 => x86}/Makefile | 4 +--
The --numstat option gives the diffstat(1) information but is designed
for easier machine consumption. An entry in --numstat output looks
like this:
1 2 README
3 1 arch/{i386 => x86}/Makefile
That is, from left to right:
-
the number of added lines;
-
a tab;
-
the number of deleted lines;
-
a tab;
-
pathname (possibly with rename/copy information);
-
a newline.
When -z output option is in effect, the output is formatted this way:
1 2 README NUL
3 1 NUL arch/i386/Makefile NUL arch/x86/Makefile NUL
That is:
-
the number of added lines;
-
a tab;
-
the number of deleted lines;
-
a tab;
-
a NUL (only exists if renamed/copied);
-
pathname in preimage;
-
a NUL (only exists if renamed/copied);
-
pathname in postimage (only exists if renamed/copied);
-
a NUL.
The extra NUL before the preimage path in renamed case is to allow
scripts that read the output to tell if the current record being read is
a single-path record or a rename/copy record without reading ahead.
After reading added and deleted lines, reading up to NUL would yield
the pathname, but if that is NUL, the record will show two paths.
EXAMPLES
-
Various ways to check your working tree
-
$ git diff (1)
$ git diff --cached (2)
$ git diff HEAD (3)
-
Changes in the working tree not yet staged for the next commit.
-
Changes between the index and your last commit; what you
would be committing if you run "git commit" without "-a" option.
-
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)
-
Instead of using the tip of the current branch, compare with the
tip of "test" branch.
-
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".
-
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)
-
Changes between the tips of the topic and the master branches.
-
Same as above.
-
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)
-
Show only modification, rename and copy, but not addition
nor deletion.
-
Show only names and the nature of change, but not actual
diff output.
-
Limit diff output to named subtrees.
-
Munging the diff output
-
$ git diff --find-copies-harder -B -C (1)
$ git diff -R (2)
-
Spend extra cycles to find renames, copies and complete
rewrites (very expensive).
-
Output diff in reverse.
Author
Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
Documentation
Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.
GIT