Documentation / diff-options.txton commit diff: parse ws-error-highlight option more strictly (3f4f17b)
   1// Please don't remove this comment as asciidoc behaves badly when
   2// the first non-empty line is ifdef/ifndef. The symptom is that
   3// without this comment the <git-diff-core> attribute conditionally
   4// defined below ends up being defined unconditionally.
   5// Last checked with asciidoc 7.0.2.
   6
   7ifndef::git-format-patch[]
   8ifndef::git-diff[]
   9ifndef::git-log[]
  10:git-diff-core: 1
  11endif::git-log[]
  12endif::git-diff[]
  13endif::git-format-patch[]
  14
  15ifdef::git-format-patch[]
  16-p::
  17--no-stat::
  18        Generate plain patches without any diffstats.
  19endif::git-format-patch[]
  20
  21ifndef::git-format-patch[]
  22-p::
  23-u::
  24--patch::
  25        Generate patch (see section on generating patches).
  26        {git-diff? This is the default.}
  27endif::git-format-patch[]
  28
  29-s::
  30--no-patch::
  31        Suppress diff output. Useful for commands like `git show` that
  32        show the patch by default, or to cancel the effect of `--patch`.
  33
  34-U<n>::
  35--unified=<n>::
  36        Generate diffs with <n> lines of context instead of
  37        the usual three.
  38ifndef::git-format-patch[]
  39        Implies `-p`.
  40endif::git-format-patch[]
  41
  42ifndef::git-format-patch[]
  43--raw::
  44        Generate the raw format.
  45        {git-diff-core? This is the default.}
  46endif::git-format-patch[]
  47
  48ifndef::git-format-patch[]
  49--patch-with-raw::
  50        Synonym for `-p --raw`.
  51endif::git-format-patch[]
  52
  53--minimal::
  54        Spend extra time to make sure the smallest possible
  55        diff is produced.
  56
  57--patience::
  58        Generate a diff using the "patience diff" algorithm.
  59
  60--histogram::
  61        Generate a diff using the "histogram diff" algorithm.
  62
  63--diff-algorithm={patience|minimal|histogram|myers}::
  64        Choose a diff algorithm. The variants are as follows:
  65+
  66--
  67`default`, `myers`;;
  68        The basic greedy diff algorithm. Currently, this is the default.
  69`minimal`;;
  70        Spend extra time to make sure the smallest possible diff is
  71        produced.
  72`patience`;;
  73        Use "patience diff" algorithm when generating patches.
  74`histogram`;;
  75        This algorithm extends the patience algorithm to "support
  76        low-occurrence common elements".
  77--
  78+
  79For instance, if you configured diff.algorithm variable to a
  80non-default value and want to use the default one, then you
  81have to use `--diff-algorithm=default` option.
  82
  83--stat[=<width>[,<name-width>[,<count>]]]::
  84        Generate a diffstat. By default, as much space as necessary
  85        will be used for the filename part, and the rest for the graph
  86        part. Maximum width defaults to terminal width, or 80 columns
  87        if not connected to a terminal, and can be overridden by
  88        `<width>`. The width of the filename part can be limited by
  89        giving another width `<name-width>` after a comma. The width
  90        of the graph part can be limited by using
  91        `--stat-graph-width=<width>` (affects all commands generating
  92        a stat graph) or by setting `diff.statGraphWidth=<width>`
  93        (does not affect `git format-patch`).
  94        By giving a third parameter `<count>`, you can limit the
  95        output to the first `<count>` lines, followed by `...` if
  96        there are more.
  97+
  98These parameters can also be set individually with `--stat-width=<width>`,
  99`--stat-name-width=<name-width>` and `--stat-count=<count>`.
 100
 101--numstat::
 102        Similar to `--stat`, but shows number of added and
 103        deleted lines in decimal notation and pathname without
 104        abbreviation, to make it more machine friendly.  For
 105        binary files, outputs two `-` instead of saying
 106        `0 0`.
 107
 108--shortstat::
 109        Output only the last line of the `--stat` format containing total
 110        number of modified files, as well as number of added and deleted
 111        lines.
 112
 113--dirstat[=<param1,param2,...>]::
 114        Output the distribution of relative amount of changes for each
 115        sub-directory. The behavior of `--dirstat` can be customized by
 116        passing it a comma separated list of parameters.
 117        The defaults are controlled by the `diff.dirstat` configuration
 118        variable (see linkgit:git-config[1]).
 119        The following parameters are available:
 120+
 121--
 122`changes`;;
 123        Compute the dirstat numbers by counting the lines that have been
 124        removed from the source, or added to the destination. This ignores
 125        the amount of pure code movements within a file.  In other words,
 126        rearranging lines in a file is not counted as much as other changes.
 127        This is the default behavior when no parameter is given.
 128`lines`;;
 129        Compute the dirstat numbers by doing the regular line-based diff
 130        analysis, and summing the removed/added line counts. (For binary
 131        files, count 64-byte chunks instead, since binary files have no
 132        natural concept of lines). This is a more expensive `--dirstat`
 133        behavior than the `changes` behavior, but it does count rearranged
 134        lines within a file as much as other changes. The resulting output
 135        is consistent with what you get from the other `--*stat` options.
 136`files`;;
 137        Compute the dirstat numbers by counting the number of files changed.
 138        Each changed file counts equally in the dirstat analysis. This is
 139        the computationally cheapest `--dirstat` behavior, since it does
 140        not have to look at the file contents at all.
 141`cumulative`;;
 142        Count changes in a child directory for the parent directory as well.
 143        Note that when using `cumulative`, the sum of the percentages
 144        reported may exceed 100%. The default (non-cumulative) behavior can
 145        be specified with the `noncumulative` parameter.
 146<limit>;;
 147        An integer parameter specifies a cut-off percent (3% by default).
 148        Directories contributing less than this percentage of the changes
 149        are not shown in the output.
 150--
 151+
 152Example: The following will count changed files, while ignoring
 153directories with less than 10% of the total amount of changed files,
 154and accumulating child directory counts in the parent directories:
 155`--dirstat=files,10,cumulative`.
 156
 157--summary::
 158        Output a condensed summary of extended header information
 159        such as creations, renames and mode changes.
 160
 161ifndef::git-format-patch[]
 162--patch-with-stat::
 163        Synonym for `-p --stat`.
 164endif::git-format-patch[]
 165
 166ifndef::git-format-patch[]
 167
 168-z::
 169ifdef::git-log[]
 170        Separate the commits with NULs instead of with new newlines.
 171+
 172Also, when `--raw` or `--numstat` has been given, do not munge
 173pathnames and use NULs as output field terminators.
 174endif::git-log[]
 175ifndef::git-log[]
 176        When `--raw`, `--numstat`, `--name-only` or `--name-status` has been
 177        given, do not munge pathnames and use NULs as output field terminators.
 178endif::git-log[]
 179+
 180Without this option, each pathname output will have TAB, LF, double quotes,
 181and backslash characters replaced with `\t`, `\n`, `\"`, and `\\`,
 182respectively, and the pathname will be enclosed in double quotes if
 183any of those replacements occurred.
 184
 185--name-only::
 186        Show only names of changed files.
 187
 188--name-status::
 189        Show only names and status of changed files. See the description
 190        of the `--diff-filter` option on what the status letters mean.
 191
 192--submodule[=<format>]::
 193        Specify how differences in submodules are shown.  When `--submodule`
 194        or `--submodule=log` is given, the 'log' format is used.  This format lists
 195        the commits in the range like linkgit:git-submodule[1] `summary` does.
 196        Omitting the `--submodule` option or specifying `--submodule=short`,
 197        uses the 'short' format. This format just shows the names of the commits
 198        at the beginning and end of the range.  Can be tweaked via the
 199        `diff.submodule` configuration variable.
 200
 201--color[=<when>]::
 202        Show colored diff.
 203        `--color` (i.e. without '=<when>') is the same as `--color=always`.
 204        '<when>' can be one of `always`, `never`, or `auto`.
 205ifdef::git-diff[]
 206        It can be changed by the `color.ui` and `color.diff`
 207        configuration settings.
 208endif::git-diff[]
 209
 210--no-color::
 211        Turn off colored diff.
 212ifdef::git-diff[]
 213        This can be used to override configuration settings.
 214endif::git-diff[]
 215        It is the same as `--color=never`.
 216
 217--word-diff[=<mode>]::
 218        Show a word diff, using the <mode> to delimit changed words.
 219        By default, words are delimited by whitespace; see
 220        `--word-diff-regex` below.  The <mode> defaults to 'plain', and
 221        must be one of:
 222+
 223--
 224color::
 225        Highlight changed words using only colors.  Implies `--color`.
 226plain::
 227        Show words as `[-removed-]` and `{+added+}`.  Makes no
 228        attempts to escape the delimiters if they appear in the input,
 229        so the output may be ambiguous.
 230porcelain::
 231        Use a special line-based format intended for script
 232        consumption.  Added/removed/unchanged runs are printed in the
 233        usual unified diff format, starting with a `+`/`-`/` `
 234        character at the beginning of the line and extending to the
 235        end of the line.  Newlines in the input are represented by a
 236        tilde `~` on a line of its own.
 237none::
 238        Disable word diff again.
 239--
 240+
 241Note that despite the name of the first mode, color is used to
 242highlight the changed parts in all modes if enabled.
 243
 244--word-diff-regex=<regex>::
 245        Use <regex> to decide what a word is, instead of considering
 246        runs of non-whitespace to be a word.  Also implies
 247        `--word-diff` unless it was already enabled.
 248+
 249Every non-overlapping match of the
 250<regex> is considered a word.  Anything between these matches is
 251considered whitespace and ignored(!) for the purposes of finding
 252differences.  You may want to append `|[^[:space:]]` to your regular
 253expression to make sure that it matches all non-whitespace characters.
 254A match that contains a newline is silently truncated(!) at the
 255newline.
 256+
 257The regex can also be set via a diff driver or configuration option, see
 258linkgit:gitattributes[1] or linkgit:git-config[1].  Giving it explicitly
 259overrides any diff driver or configuration setting.  Diff drivers
 260override configuration settings.
 261
 262--color-words[=<regex>]::
 263        Equivalent to `--word-diff=color` plus (if a regex was
 264        specified) `--word-diff-regex=<regex>`.
 265endif::git-format-patch[]
 266
 267--no-renames::
 268        Turn off rename detection, even when the configuration
 269        file gives the default to do so.
 270
 271ifndef::git-format-patch[]
 272--check::
 273        Warn if changes introduce whitespace errors.  What are
 274        considered whitespace errors is controlled by `core.whitespace`
 275        configuration.  By default, trailing whitespaces (including
 276        lines that solely consist of whitespaces) and a space character
 277        that is immediately followed by a tab character inside the
 278        initial indent of the line are considered whitespace errors.
 279        Exits with non-zero status if problems are found. Not compatible
 280        with --exit-code.
 281
 282--ws-error-highlight=<kind>::
 283        Highlight whitespace errors on lines specified by <kind>
 284        in the color specified by `color.diff.whitespace`.  <kind>
 285        is a comma separated list of `old`, `new`, `context`.  When
 286        this option is not given, only whitespace errors in `new`
 287        lines are highlighted.  E.g. `--ws-error-highlight=new,old`
 288        highlights whitespace errors on both deleted and added lines.
 289        `all` can be used as a short-hand for `old,new,context`.
 290
 291endif::git-format-patch[]
 292
 293--full-index::
 294        Instead of the first handful of characters, show the full
 295        pre- and post-image blob object names on the "index"
 296        line when generating patch format output.
 297
 298--binary::
 299        In addition to `--full-index`, output a binary diff that
 300        can be applied with `git-apply`.
 301
 302--abbrev[=<n>]::
 303        Instead of showing the full 40-byte hexadecimal object
 304        name in diff-raw format output and diff-tree header
 305        lines, show only a partial prefix.  This is
 306        independent of the `--full-index` option above, which controls
 307        the diff-patch output format.  Non default number of
 308        digits can be specified with `--abbrev=<n>`.
 309
 310-B[<n>][/<m>]::
 311--break-rewrites[=[<n>][/<m>]]::
 312        Break complete rewrite changes into pairs of delete and
 313        create. This serves two purposes:
 314+
 315It affects the way a change that amounts to a total rewrite of a file
 316not as a series of deletion and insertion mixed together with a very
 317few lines that happen to match textually as the context, but as a
 318single deletion of everything old followed by a single insertion of
 319everything new, and the number `m` controls this aspect of the -B
 320option (defaults to 60%). `-B/70%` specifies that less than 30% of the
 321original should remain in the result for Git to consider it a total
 322rewrite (i.e. otherwise the resulting patch will be a series of
 323deletion and insertion mixed together with context lines).
 324+
 325When used with -M, a totally-rewritten file is also considered as the
 326source of a rename (usually -M only considers a file that disappeared
 327as the source of a rename), and the number `n` controls this aspect of
 328the -B option (defaults to 50%). `-B20%` specifies that a change with
 329addition and deletion compared to 20% or more of the file's size are
 330eligible for being picked up as a possible source of a rename to
 331another file.
 332
 333-M[<n>]::
 334--find-renames[=<n>]::
 335ifndef::git-log[]
 336        Detect renames.
 337endif::git-log[]
 338ifdef::git-log[]
 339        If generating diffs, detect and report renames for each commit.
 340        For following files across renames while traversing history, see
 341        `--follow`.
 342endif::git-log[]
 343        If `n` is specified, it is a threshold on the similarity
 344        index (i.e. amount of addition/deletions compared to the
 345        file's size). For example, `-M90%` means Git should consider a
 346        delete/add pair to be a rename if more than 90% of the file
 347        hasn't changed.  Without a `%` sign, the number is to be read as
 348        a fraction, with a decimal point before it.  I.e., `-M5` becomes
 349        0.5, and is thus the same as `-M50%`.  Similarly, `-M05` is
 350        the same as `-M5%`.  To limit detection to exact renames, use
 351        `-M100%`.  The default similarity index is 50%.
 352
 353-C[<n>]::
 354--find-copies[=<n>]::
 355        Detect copies as well as renames.  See also `--find-copies-harder`.
 356        If `n` is specified, it has the same meaning as for `-M<n>`.
 357
 358--find-copies-harder::
 359        For performance reasons, by default, `-C` option finds copies only
 360        if the original file of the copy was modified in the same
 361        changeset.  This flag makes the command
 362        inspect unmodified files as candidates for the source of
 363        copy.  This is a very expensive operation for large
 364        projects, so use it with caution.  Giving more than one
 365        `-C` option has the same effect.
 366
 367-D::
 368--irreversible-delete::
 369        Omit the preimage for deletes, i.e. print only the header but not
 370        the diff between the preimage and `/dev/null`. The resulting patch
 371        is not meant to be applied with `patch` or `git apply`; this is
 372        solely for people who want to just concentrate on reviewing the
 373        text after the change. In addition, the output obviously lack
 374        enough information to apply such a patch in reverse, even manually,
 375        hence the name of the option.
 376+
 377When used together with `-B`, omit also the preimage in the deletion part
 378of a delete/create pair.
 379
 380-l<num>::
 381        The `-M` and `-C` options require O(n^2) processing time where n
 382        is the number of potential rename/copy targets.  This
 383        option prevents rename/copy detection from running if
 384        the number of rename/copy targets exceeds the specified
 385        number.
 386
 387ifndef::git-format-patch[]
 388--diff-filter=[(A|C|D|M|R|T|U|X|B)...[*]]::
 389        Select only files that are Added (`A`), Copied (`C`),
 390        Deleted (`D`), Modified (`M`), Renamed (`R`), have their
 391        type (i.e. regular file, symlink, submodule, ...) changed (`T`),
 392        are Unmerged (`U`), are
 393        Unknown (`X`), or have had their pairing Broken (`B`).
 394        Any combination of the filter characters (including none) can be used.
 395        When `*` (All-or-none) is added to the combination, all
 396        paths are selected if there is any file that matches
 397        other criteria in the comparison; if there is no file
 398        that matches other criteria, nothing is selected.
 399
 400-S<string>::
 401        Look for differences that change the number of occurrences of
 402        the specified string (i.e. addition/deletion) in a file.
 403        Intended for the scripter's use.
 404+
 405It is useful when you're looking for an exact block of code (like a
 406struct), and want to know the history of that block since it first
 407came into being: use the feature iteratively to feed the interesting
 408block in the preimage back into `-S`, and keep going until you get the
 409very first version of the block.
 410
 411-G<regex>::
 412        Look for differences whose patch text contains added/removed
 413        lines that match <regex>.
 414+
 415To illustrate the difference between `-S<regex> --pickaxe-regex` and
 416`-G<regex>`, consider a commit with the following diff in the same
 417file:
 418+
 419----
 420+    return !regexec(regexp, two->ptr, 1, &regmatch, 0);
 421...
 422-    hit = !regexec(regexp, mf2.ptr, 1, &regmatch, 0);
 423----
 424+
 425While `git log -G"regexec\(regexp"` will show this commit, `git log
 426-S"regexec\(regexp" --pickaxe-regex` will not (because the number of
 427occurrences of that string did not change).
 428+
 429See the 'pickaxe' entry in linkgit:gitdiffcore[7] for more
 430information.
 431
 432--pickaxe-all::
 433        When `-S` or `-G` finds a change, show all the changes in that
 434        changeset, not just the files that contain the change
 435        in <string>.
 436
 437--pickaxe-regex::
 438        Treat the <string> given to `-S` as an extended POSIX regular
 439        expression to match.
 440endif::git-format-patch[]
 441
 442-O<orderfile>::
 443        Output the patch in the order specified in the
 444        <orderfile>, which has one shell glob pattern per line.
 445        This overrides the `diff.orderfile` configuration variable
 446        (see linkgit:git-config[1]).  To cancel `diff.orderfile`,
 447        use `-O/dev/null`.
 448
 449ifndef::git-format-patch[]
 450-R::
 451        Swap two inputs; that is, show differences from index or
 452        on-disk file to tree contents.
 453
 454--relative[=<path>]::
 455        When run from a subdirectory of the project, it can be
 456        told to exclude changes outside the directory and show
 457        pathnames relative to it with this option.  When you are
 458        not in a subdirectory (e.g. in a bare repository), you
 459        can name which subdirectory to make the output relative
 460        to by giving a <path> as an argument.
 461endif::git-format-patch[]
 462
 463-a::
 464--text::
 465        Treat all files as text.
 466
 467--ignore-space-at-eol::
 468        Ignore changes in whitespace at EOL.
 469
 470-b::
 471--ignore-space-change::
 472        Ignore changes in amount of whitespace.  This ignores whitespace
 473        at line end, and considers all other sequences of one or
 474        more whitespace characters to be equivalent.
 475
 476-w::
 477--ignore-all-space::
 478        Ignore whitespace when comparing lines.  This ignores
 479        differences even if one line has whitespace where the other
 480        line has none.
 481
 482--ignore-blank-lines::
 483        Ignore changes whose lines are all blank.
 484
 485--inter-hunk-context=<lines>::
 486        Show the context between diff hunks, up to the specified number
 487        of lines, thereby fusing hunks that are close to each other.
 488
 489-W::
 490--function-context::
 491        Show whole surrounding functions of changes.
 492
 493ifndef::git-format-patch[]
 494ifndef::git-log[]
 495--exit-code::
 496        Make the program exit with codes similar to diff(1).
 497        That is, it exits with 1 if there were differences and
 498        0 means no differences.
 499
 500--quiet::
 501        Disable all output of the program. Implies `--exit-code`.
 502endif::git-log[]
 503endif::git-format-patch[]
 504
 505--ext-diff::
 506        Allow an external diff helper to be executed. If you set an
 507        external diff driver with linkgit:gitattributes[5], you need
 508        to use this option with linkgit:git-log[1] and friends.
 509
 510--no-ext-diff::
 511        Disallow external diff drivers.
 512
 513--textconv::
 514--no-textconv::
 515        Allow (or disallow) external text conversion filters to be run
 516        when comparing binary files. See linkgit:gitattributes[5] for
 517        details. Because textconv filters are typically a one-way
 518        conversion, the resulting diff is suitable for human
 519        consumption, but cannot be applied. For this reason, textconv
 520        filters are enabled by default only for linkgit:git-diff[1] and
 521        linkgit:git-log[1], but not for linkgit:git-format-patch[1] or
 522        diff plumbing commands.
 523
 524--ignore-submodules[=<when>]::
 525        Ignore changes to submodules in the diff generation. <when> can be
 526        either "none", "untracked", "dirty" or "all", which is the default.
 527        Using "none" will consider the submodule modified when it either contains
 528        untracked or modified files or its HEAD differs from the commit recorded
 529        in the superproject and can be used to override any settings of the
 530        'ignore' option in linkgit:git-config[1] or linkgit:gitmodules[5]. When
 531        "untracked" is used submodules are not considered dirty when they only
 532        contain untracked content (but they are still scanned for modified
 533        content). Using "dirty" ignores all changes to the work tree of submodules,
 534        only changes to the commits stored in the superproject are shown (this was
 535        the behavior until 1.7.0). Using "all" hides all changes to submodules.
 536
 537--src-prefix=<prefix>::
 538        Show the given source prefix instead of "a/".
 539
 540--dst-prefix=<prefix>::
 541        Show the given destination prefix instead of "b/".
 542
 543--no-prefix::
 544        Do not show any source or destination prefix.
 545
 546For more detailed explanation on these common options, see also
 547linkgit:gitdiffcore[7].