summaryrefslogtreecommitdiffstats
path: root/Documentation/git-diff.txt
blob: 7f4c8a8ce7fd54f87e2c3936a6a1cf1cc623c60d (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
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
git-diff(1)
===========

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


SYNOPSIS
--------
[verse]
'git diff' [<options>] [<commit>] [--] [<path>...]
'git diff' [<options>] --cached [--merge-base] [<commit>] [--] [<path>...]
'git diff' [<options>] [--merge-base] <commit> [<commit>...] <commit> [--] [<path>...]
'git diff' [<options>] <commit>...<commit> [--] [<path>...]
'git diff' [<options>] <blob> <blob>
'git diff' [<options>] --no-index [--] <path> <path>

DESCRIPTION
-----------
Show changes between the working tree and the index or a tree, changes
between the index and a tree, changes between two trees, changes resulting
from a merge, changes between two blob objects, or changes between two
files on disk.

'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].

'git diff' [<options>] --no-index [--] <path> <path>::

	This form is to compare the given two paths on the
	filesystem.  You can omit the `--no-index` option when
	running the command in a working tree controlled by Git and
	at least one of the paths points outside the working tree,
	or when running the command outside a working tree
	controlled by Git. This form implies `--exit-code`.

'git diff' [<options>] --cached [--merge-base] [<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.
	If HEAD does not exist (e.g. unborn branches) and
	<commit> is not given, it shows all staged changes.
	--staged is a synonym of --cached.
+
If --merge-base is given, instead of using <commit>, use the merge base
of <commit> and HEAD.  `git diff --merge-base A` is equivalent to
`git diff $(git merge-base A 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>] [--merge-base] <commit> <commit> [--] [<path>...]::

	This is to view the changes between two arbitrary
	<commit>.
+
If --merge-base is given, use the merge base of the two commits for the
"before" side.  `git diff --merge-base A B` is equivalent to
`git diff $(git merge-base A B) B`.

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

	This form is to view the results of a merge commit.  The first
	listed <commit> must be the merge itself; the remaining two or
	more commits should be its parents.  A convenient way to produce
	the desired set of revisions is to use the `^@` suffix.
	For instance, if `master` names a merge commit, `git diff master
	master^@` gives the same combined diff as `git show master`.

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

	This is synonymous to the earlier form (without the `..`) for
	viewing the changes between two arbitrary <commit>.  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 you are doing something exotic, it should be
noted that all of the <commit> in the above description, except
in the `--merge-base` case and in the last two forms that use `..`
notations, can be any <tree>.

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].

'git diff' [<options>] <blob> <blob>::

	This form is to view the differences between the raw
	contents of two blob objects.

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

-1 --base::
-2 --ours::
-3 --theirs::
	Compare the working tree with the "base" version (stage #1),
	"our branch" (stage #2) or "their branch" (stage #3).  The
	index contains these stages only for unmerged entries i.e.
	while resolving conflicts.  See linkgit:git-read-tree[1]
	section "3-Way Merge" for detailed information.

-0::
	Omit diff output for unmerged entries and just show
	"Unmerged".  Can be used only when comparing the working tree
	with the index.

<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
    or 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],
linkgit:git-show[1]

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