Documentation / diff-options.txton commit Merge branch 'lv/add-doc-working-tree' (465c30a)
   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).
  26ifdef::git-diff[]
  27        This is the default.
  28endif::git-diff[]
  29endif::git-format-patch[]
  30
  31-s::
  32--no-patch::
  33        Suppress diff output. Useful for commands like `git show` that
  34        show the patch by default, or to cancel the effect of `--patch`.
  35
  36-U<n>::
  37--unified=<n>::
  38        Generate diffs with <n> lines of context instead of
  39        the usual three.
  40ifndef::git-format-patch[]
  41        Implies `-p`.
  42endif::git-format-patch[]
  43
  44ifndef::git-format-patch[]
  45--raw::
  46ifndef::git-log[]
  47        Generate the diff in raw format.
  48ifdef::git-diff-core[]
  49        This is the default.
  50endif::git-diff-core[]
  51endif::git-log[]
  52ifdef::git-log[]
  53        For each commit, show a summary of changes using the raw diff
  54        format. See the "RAW OUTPUT FORMAT" section of
  55        linkgit:git-diff[1]. This is different from showing the log
  56        itself in raw format, which you can achieve with
  57        `--format=raw`.
  58endif::git-log[]
  59endif::git-format-patch[]
  60
  61ifndef::git-format-patch[]
  62--patch-with-raw::
  63        Synonym for `-p --raw`.
  64endif::git-format-patch[]
  65
  66--minimal::
  67        Spend extra time to make sure the smallest possible
  68        diff is produced.
  69
  70--patience::
  71        Generate a diff using the "patience diff" algorithm.
  72
  73--histogram::
  74        Generate a diff using the "histogram diff" algorithm.
  75
  76--diff-algorithm={patience|minimal|histogram|myers}::
  77        Choose a diff algorithm. The variants are as follows:
  78+
  79--
  80`default`, `myers`;;
  81        The basic greedy diff algorithm. Currently, this is the default.
  82`minimal`;;
  83        Spend extra time to make sure the smallest possible diff is
  84        produced.
  85`patience`;;
  86        Use "patience diff" algorithm when generating patches.
  87`histogram`;;
  88        This algorithm extends the patience algorithm to "support
  89        low-occurrence common elements".
  90--
  91+
  92For instance, if you configured diff.algorithm variable to a
  93non-default value and want to use the default one, then you
  94have to use `--diff-algorithm=default` option.
  95
  96--stat[=<width>[,<name-width>[,<count>]]]::
  97        Generate a diffstat. By default, as much space as necessary
  98        will be used for the filename part, and the rest for the graph
  99        part. Maximum width defaults to terminal width, or 80 columns
 100        if not connected to a terminal, and can be overridden by
 101        `<width>`. The width of the filename part can be limited by
 102        giving another width `<name-width>` after a comma. The width
 103        of the graph part can be limited by using
 104        `--stat-graph-width=<width>` (affects all commands generating
 105        a stat graph) or by setting `diff.statGraphWidth=<width>`
 106        (does not affect `git format-patch`).
 107        By giving a third parameter `<count>`, you can limit the
 108        output to the first `<count>` lines, followed by `...` if
 109        there are more.
 110+
 111These parameters can also be set individually with `--stat-width=<width>`,
 112`--stat-name-width=<name-width>` and `--stat-count=<count>`.
 113
 114--numstat::
 115        Similar to `--stat`, but shows number of added and
 116        deleted lines in decimal notation and pathname without
 117        abbreviation, to make it more machine friendly.  For
 118        binary files, outputs two `-` instead of saying
 119        `0 0`.
 120
 121--shortstat::
 122        Output only the last line of the `--stat` format containing total
 123        number of modified files, as well as number of added and deleted
 124        lines.
 125
 126--dirstat[=<param1,param2,...>]::
 127        Output the distribution of relative amount of changes for each
 128        sub-directory. The behavior of `--dirstat` can be customized by
 129        passing it a comma separated list of parameters.
 130        The defaults are controlled by the `diff.dirstat` configuration
 131        variable (see linkgit:git-config[1]).
 132        The following parameters are available:
 133+
 134--
 135`changes`;;
 136        Compute the dirstat numbers by counting the lines that have been
 137        removed from the source, or added to the destination. This ignores
 138        the amount of pure code movements within a file.  In other words,
 139        rearranging lines in a file is not counted as much as other changes.
 140        This is the default behavior when no parameter is given.
 141`lines`;;
 142        Compute the dirstat numbers by doing the regular line-based diff
 143        analysis, and summing the removed/added line counts. (For binary
 144        files, count 64-byte chunks instead, since binary files have no
 145        natural concept of lines). This is a more expensive `--dirstat`
 146        behavior than the `changes` behavior, but it does count rearranged
 147        lines within a file as much as other changes. The resulting output
 148        is consistent with what you get from the other `--*stat` options.
 149`files`;;
 150        Compute the dirstat numbers by counting the number of files changed.
 151        Each changed file counts equally in the dirstat analysis. This is
 152        the computationally cheapest `--dirstat` behavior, since it does
 153        not have to look at the file contents at all.
 154`cumulative`;;
 155        Count changes in a child directory for the parent directory as well.
 156        Note that when using `cumulative`, the sum of the percentages
 157        reported may exceed 100%. The default (non-cumulative) behavior can
 158        be specified with the `noncumulative` parameter.
 159<limit>;;
 160        An integer parameter specifies a cut-off percent (3% by default).
 161        Directories contributing less than this percentage of the changes
 162        are not shown in the output.
 163--
 164+
 165Example: The following will count changed files, while ignoring
 166directories with less than 10% of the total amount of changed files,
 167and accumulating child directory counts in the parent directories:
 168`--dirstat=files,10,cumulative`.
 169
 170--summary::
 171        Output a condensed summary of extended header information
 172        such as creations, renames and mode changes.
 173
 174ifndef::git-format-patch[]
 175--patch-with-stat::
 176        Synonym for `-p --stat`.
 177endif::git-format-patch[]
 178
 179ifndef::git-format-patch[]
 180
 181-z::
 182ifdef::git-log[]
 183        Separate the commits with NULs instead of with new newlines.
 184+
 185Also, when `--raw` or `--numstat` has been given, do not munge
 186pathnames and use NULs as output field terminators.
 187endif::git-log[]
 188ifndef::git-log[]
 189        When `--raw`, `--numstat`, `--name-only` or `--name-status` has been
 190        given, do not munge pathnames and use NULs as output field terminators.
 191endif::git-log[]
 192+
 193Without this option, each pathname output will have TAB, LF, double quotes,
 194and backslash characters replaced with `\t`, `\n`, `\"`, and `\\`,
 195respectively, and the pathname will be enclosed in double quotes if
 196any of those replacements occurred.
 197
 198--name-only::
 199        Show only names of changed files.
 200
 201--name-status::
 202        Show only names and status of changed files. See the description
 203        of the `--diff-filter` option on what the status letters mean.
 204
 205--submodule[=<format>]::
 206        Specify how differences in submodules are shown.  When `--submodule`
 207        or `--submodule=log` is given, the 'log' format is used.  This format lists
 208        the commits in the range like linkgit:git-submodule[1] `summary` does.
 209        Omitting the `--submodule` option or specifying `--submodule=short`,
 210        uses the 'short' format. This format just shows the names of the commits
 211        at the beginning and end of the range.  Can be tweaked via the
 212        `diff.submodule` configuration variable.
 213
 214--color[=<when>]::
 215        Show colored diff.
 216        `--color` (i.e. without '=<when>') is the same as `--color=always`.
 217        '<when>' can be one of `always`, `never`, or `auto`.
 218ifdef::git-diff[]
 219        It can be changed by the `color.ui` and `color.diff`
 220        configuration settings.
 221endif::git-diff[]
 222
 223--no-color::
 224        Turn off colored diff.
 225ifdef::git-diff[]
 226        This can be used to override configuration settings.
 227endif::git-diff[]
 228        It is the same as `--color=never`.
 229
 230--word-diff[=<mode>]::
 231        Show a word diff, using the <mode> to delimit changed words.
 232        By default, words are delimited by whitespace; see
 233        `--word-diff-regex` below.  The <mode> defaults to 'plain', and
 234        must be one of:
 235+
 236--
 237color::
 238        Highlight changed words using only colors.  Implies `--color`.
 239plain::
 240        Show words as `[-removed-]` and `{+added+}`.  Makes no
 241        attempts to escape the delimiters if they appear in the input,
 242        so the output may be ambiguous.
 243porcelain::
 244        Use a special line-based format intended for script
 245        consumption.  Added/removed/unchanged runs are printed in the
 246        usual unified diff format, starting with a `+`/`-`/` `
 247        character at the beginning of the line and extending to the
 248        end of the line.  Newlines in the input are represented by a
 249        tilde `~` on a line of its own.
 250none::
 251        Disable word diff again.
 252--
 253+
 254Note that despite the name of the first mode, color is used to
 255highlight the changed parts in all modes if enabled.
 256
 257--word-diff-regex=<regex>::
 258        Use <regex> to decide what a word is, instead of considering
 259        runs of non-whitespace to be a word.  Also implies
 260        `--word-diff` unless it was already enabled.
 261+
 262Every non-overlapping match of the
 263<regex> is considered a word.  Anything between these matches is
 264considered whitespace and ignored(!) for the purposes of finding
 265differences.  You may want to append `|[^[:space:]]` to your regular
 266expression to make sure that it matches all non-whitespace characters.
 267A match that contains a newline is silently truncated(!) at the
 268newline.
 269+
 270For example, `--word-diff-regex=.` will treat each character as a word
 271and, correspondingly, show differences character by character.
 272+
 273The regex can also be set via a diff driver or configuration option, see
 274linkgit:gitattributes[1] or linkgit:git-config[1].  Giving it explicitly
 275overrides any diff driver or configuration setting.  Diff drivers
 276override configuration settings.
 277
 278--color-words[=<regex>]::
 279        Equivalent to `--word-diff=color` plus (if a regex was
 280        specified) `--word-diff-regex=<regex>`.
 281endif::git-format-patch[]
 282
 283--no-renames::
 284        Turn off rename detection, even when the configuration
 285        file gives the default to do so.
 286
 287ifndef::git-format-patch[]
 288--check::
 289        Warn if changes introduce whitespace errors.  What are
 290        considered whitespace errors is controlled by `core.whitespace`
 291        configuration.  By default, trailing whitespaces (including
 292        lines that solely consist of whitespaces) and a space character
 293        that is immediately followed by a tab character inside the
 294        initial indent of the line are considered whitespace errors.
 295        Exits with non-zero status if problems are found. Not compatible
 296        with --exit-code.
 297
 298--ws-error-highlight=<kind>::
 299        Highlight whitespace errors on lines specified by <kind>
 300        in the color specified by `color.diff.whitespace`.  <kind>
 301        is a comma separated list of `old`, `new`, `context`.  When
 302        this option is not given, only whitespace errors in `new`
 303        lines are highlighted.  E.g. `--ws-error-highlight=new,old`
 304        highlights whitespace errors on both deleted and added lines.
 305        `all` can be used as a short-hand for `old,new,context`.
 306
 307endif::git-format-patch[]
 308
 309--full-index::
 310        Instead of the first handful of characters, show the full
 311        pre- and post-image blob object names on the "index"
 312        line when generating patch format output.
 313
 314--binary::
 315        In addition to `--full-index`, output a binary diff that
 316        can be applied with `git-apply`.
 317
 318--abbrev[=<n>]::
 319        Instead of showing the full 40-byte hexadecimal object
 320        name in diff-raw format output and diff-tree header
 321        lines, show only a partial prefix.  This is
 322        independent of the `--full-index` option above, which controls
 323        the diff-patch output format.  Non default number of
 324        digits can be specified with `--abbrev=<n>`.
 325
 326-B[<n>][/<m>]::
 327--break-rewrites[=[<n>][/<m>]]::
 328        Break complete rewrite changes into pairs of delete and
 329        create. This serves two purposes:
 330+
 331It affects the way a change that amounts to a total rewrite of a file
 332not as a series of deletion and insertion mixed together with a very
 333few lines that happen to match textually as the context, but as a
 334single deletion of everything old followed by a single insertion of
 335everything new, and the number `m` controls this aspect of the -B
 336option (defaults to 60%). `-B/70%` specifies that less than 30% of the
 337original should remain in the result for Git to consider it a total
 338rewrite (i.e. otherwise the resulting patch will be a series of
 339deletion and insertion mixed together with context lines).
 340+
 341When used with -M, a totally-rewritten file is also considered as the
 342source of a rename (usually -M only considers a file that disappeared
 343as the source of a rename), and the number `n` controls this aspect of
 344the -B option (defaults to 50%). `-B20%` specifies that a change with
 345addition and deletion compared to 20% or more of the file's size are
 346eligible for being picked up as a possible source of a rename to
 347another file.
 348
 349-M[<n>]::
 350--find-renames[=<n>]::
 351ifndef::git-log[]
 352        Detect renames.
 353endif::git-log[]
 354ifdef::git-log[]
 355        If generating diffs, detect and report renames for each commit.
 356        For following files across renames while traversing history, see
 357        `--follow`.
 358endif::git-log[]
 359        If `n` is specified, it is a threshold on the similarity
 360        index (i.e. amount of addition/deletions compared to the
 361        file's size). For example, `-M90%` means Git should consider a
 362        delete/add pair to be a rename if more than 90% of the file
 363        hasn't changed.  Without a `%` sign, the number is to be read as
 364        a fraction, with a decimal point before it.  I.e., `-M5` becomes
 365        0.5, and is thus the same as `-M50%`.  Similarly, `-M05` is
 366        the same as `-M5%`.  To limit detection to exact renames, use
 367        `-M100%`.  The default similarity index is 50%.
 368
 369-C[<n>]::
 370--find-copies[=<n>]::
 371        Detect copies as well as renames.  See also `--find-copies-harder`.
 372        If `n` is specified, it has the same meaning as for `-M<n>`.
 373
 374--find-copies-harder::
 375        For performance reasons, by default, `-C` option finds copies only
 376        if the original file of the copy was modified in the same
 377        changeset.  This flag makes the command
 378        inspect unmodified files as candidates for the source of
 379        copy.  This is a very expensive operation for large
 380        projects, so use it with caution.  Giving more than one
 381        `-C` option has the same effect.
 382
 383-D::
 384--irreversible-delete::
 385        Omit the preimage for deletes, i.e. print only the header but not
 386        the diff between the preimage and `/dev/null`. The resulting patch
 387        is not meant to be applied with `patch` or `git apply`; this is
 388        solely for people who want to just concentrate on reviewing the
 389        text after the change. In addition, the output obviously lack
 390        enough information to apply such a patch in reverse, even manually,
 391        hence the name of the option.
 392+
 393When used together with `-B`, omit also the preimage in the deletion part
 394of a delete/create pair.
 395
 396-l<num>::
 397        The `-M` and `-C` options require O(n^2) processing time where n
 398        is the number of potential rename/copy targets.  This
 399        option prevents rename/copy detection from running if
 400        the number of rename/copy targets exceeds the specified
 401        number.
 402
 403ifndef::git-format-patch[]
 404--diff-filter=[(A|C|D|M|R|T|U|X|B)...[*]]::
 405        Select only files that are Added (`A`), Copied (`C`),
 406        Deleted (`D`), Modified (`M`), Renamed (`R`), have their
 407        type (i.e. regular file, symlink, submodule, ...) changed (`T`),
 408        are Unmerged (`U`), are
 409        Unknown (`X`), or have had their pairing Broken (`B`).
 410        Any combination of the filter characters (including none) can be used.
 411        When `*` (All-or-none) is added to the combination, all
 412        paths are selected if there is any file that matches
 413        other criteria in the comparison; if there is no file
 414        that matches other criteria, nothing is selected.
 415
 416-S<string>::
 417        Look for differences that change the number of occurrences of
 418        the specified string (i.e. addition/deletion) in a file.
 419        Intended for the scripter's use.
 420+
 421It is useful when you're looking for an exact block of code (like a
 422struct), and want to know the history of that block since it first
 423came into being: use the feature iteratively to feed the interesting
 424block in the preimage back into `-S`, and keep going until you get the
 425very first version of the block.
 426
 427-G<regex>::
 428        Look for differences whose patch text contains added/removed
 429        lines that match <regex>.
 430+
 431To illustrate the difference between `-S<regex> --pickaxe-regex` and
 432`-G<regex>`, consider a commit with the following diff in the same
 433file:
 434+
 435----
 436+    return !regexec(regexp, two->ptr, 1, &regmatch, 0);
 437...
 438-    hit = !regexec(regexp, mf2.ptr, 1, &regmatch, 0);
 439----
 440+
 441While `git log -G"regexec\(regexp"` will show this commit, `git log
 442-S"regexec\(regexp" --pickaxe-regex` will not (because the number of
 443occurrences of that string did not change).
 444+
 445See the 'pickaxe' entry in linkgit:gitdiffcore[7] for more
 446information.
 447
 448--pickaxe-all::
 449        When `-S` or `-G` finds a change, show all the changes in that
 450        changeset, not just the files that contain the change
 451        in <string>.
 452
 453--pickaxe-regex::
 454        Treat the <string> given to `-S` as an extended POSIX regular
 455        expression to match.
 456endif::git-format-patch[]
 457
 458-O<orderfile>::
 459        Output the patch in the order specified in the
 460        <orderfile>, which has one shell glob pattern per line.
 461        This overrides the `diff.orderFile` configuration variable
 462        (see linkgit:git-config[1]).  To cancel `diff.orderFile`,
 463        use `-O/dev/null`.
 464
 465ifndef::git-format-patch[]
 466-R::
 467        Swap two inputs; that is, show differences from index or
 468        on-disk file to tree contents.
 469
 470--relative[=<path>]::
 471        When run from a subdirectory of the project, it can be
 472        told to exclude changes outside the directory and show
 473        pathnames relative to it with this option.  When you are
 474        not in a subdirectory (e.g. in a bare repository), you
 475        can name which subdirectory to make the output relative
 476        to by giving a <path> as an argument.
 477endif::git-format-patch[]
 478
 479-a::
 480--text::
 481        Treat all files as text.
 482
 483--ignore-space-at-eol::
 484        Ignore changes in whitespace at EOL.
 485
 486-b::
 487--ignore-space-change::
 488        Ignore changes in amount of whitespace.  This ignores whitespace
 489        at line end, and considers all other sequences of one or
 490        more whitespace characters to be equivalent.
 491
 492-w::
 493--ignore-all-space::
 494        Ignore whitespace when comparing lines.  This ignores
 495        differences even if one line has whitespace where the other
 496        line has none.
 497
 498--ignore-blank-lines::
 499        Ignore changes whose lines are all blank.
 500
 501--inter-hunk-context=<lines>::
 502        Show the context between diff hunks, up to the specified number
 503        of lines, thereby fusing hunks that are close to each other.
 504
 505-W::
 506--function-context::
 507        Show whole surrounding functions of changes.
 508
 509ifndef::git-format-patch[]
 510ifndef::git-log[]
 511--exit-code::
 512        Make the program exit with codes similar to diff(1).
 513        That is, it exits with 1 if there were differences and
 514        0 means no differences.
 515
 516--quiet::
 517        Disable all output of the program. Implies `--exit-code`.
 518endif::git-log[]
 519endif::git-format-patch[]
 520
 521--ext-diff::
 522        Allow an external diff helper to be executed. If you set an
 523        external diff driver with linkgit:gitattributes[5], you need
 524        to use this option with linkgit:git-log[1] and friends.
 525
 526--no-ext-diff::
 527        Disallow external diff drivers.
 528
 529--textconv::
 530--no-textconv::
 531        Allow (or disallow) external text conversion filters to be run
 532        when comparing binary files. See linkgit:gitattributes[5] for
 533        details. Because textconv filters are typically a one-way
 534        conversion, the resulting diff is suitable for human
 535        consumption, but cannot be applied. For this reason, textconv
 536        filters are enabled by default only for linkgit:git-diff[1] and
 537        linkgit:git-log[1], but not for linkgit:git-format-patch[1] or
 538        diff plumbing commands.
 539
 540--ignore-submodules[=<when>]::
 541        Ignore changes to submodules in the diff generation. <when> can be
 542        either "none", "untracked", "dirty" or "all", which is the default.
 543        Using "none" will consider the submodule modified when it either contains
 544        untracked or modified files or its HEAD differs from the commit recorded
 545        in the superproject and can be used to override any settings of the
 546        'ignore' option in linkgit:git-config[1] or linkgit:gitmodules[5]. When
 547        "untracked" is used submodules are not considered dirty when they only
 548        contain untracked content (but they are still scanned for modified
 549        content). Using "dirty" ignores all changes to the work tree of submodules,
 550        only changes to the commits stored in the superproject are shown (this was
 551        the behavior until 1.7.0). Using "all" hides all changes to submodules.
 552
 553--src-prefix=<prefix>::
 554        Show the given source prefix instead of "a/".
 555
 556--dst-prefix=<prefix>::
 557        Show the given destination prefix instead of "b/".
 558
 559--no-prefix::
 560        Do not show any source or destination prefix.
 561
 562For more detailed explanation on these common options, see also
 563linkgit:gitdiffcore[7].