Documentation / diff-options.txton commit diff-parseopt: convert --binary (6d9af6f)
   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[]
  29
  30-s::
  31--no-patch::
  32        Suppress diff output. Useful for commands like `git show` that
  33        show the patch by default, or to cancel the effect of `--patch`.
  34endif::git-format-patch[]
  35
  36-U<n>::
  37--unified=<n>::
  38        Generate diffs with <n> lines of context instead of
  39        the usual three. Implies `--patch`.
  40ifndef::git-format-patch[]
  41        Implies `-p`.
  42endif::git-format-patch[]
  43
  44--output=<file>::
  45        Output to a specific file instead of stdout.
  46
  47--output-indicator-new=<char>::
  48--output-indicator-old=<char>::
  49--output-indicator-context=<char>::
  50        Specify the character used to indicate new, old or context
  51        lines in the generated patch. Normally they are '+', '-' and
  52        ' ' respectively.
  53
  54ifndef::git-format-patch[]
  55--raw::
  56ifndef::git-log[]
  57        Generate the diff in raw format.
  58ifdef::git-diff-core[]
  59        This is the default.
  60endif::git-diff-core[]
  61endif::git-log[]
  62ifdef::git-log[]
  63        For each commit, show a summary of changes using the raw diff
  64        format. See the "RAW OUTPUT FORMAT" section of
  65        linkgit:git-diff[1]. This is different from showing the log
  66        itself in raw format, which you can achieve with
  67        `--format=raw`.
  68endif::git-log[]
  69endif::git-format-patch[]
  70
  71ifndef::git-format-patch[]
  72--patch-with-raw::
  73        Synonym for `-p --raw`.
  74endif::git-format-patch[]
  75
  76--indent-heuristic::
  77        Enable the heuristic that shifts diff hunk boundaries to make patches
  78        easier to read. This is the default.
  79
  80--no-indent-heuristic::
  81        Disable the indent heuristic.
  82
  83--minimal::
  84        Spend extra time to make sure the smallest possible
  85        diff is produced.
  86
  87--patience::
  88        Generate a diff using the "patience diff" algorithm.
  89
  90--histogram::
  91        Generate a diff using the "histogram diff" algorithm.
  92
  93--anchored=<text>::
  94        Generate a diff using the "anchored diff" algorithm.
  95+
  96This option may be specified more than once.
  97+
  98If a line exists in both the source and destination, exists only once,
  99and starts with this text, this algorithm attempts to prevent it from
 100appearing as a deletion or addition in the output. It uses the "patience
 101diff" algorithm internally.
 102
 103--diff-algorithm={patience|minimal|histogram|myers}::
 104        Choose a diff algorithm. The variants are as follows:
 105+
 106--
 107`default`, `myers`;;
 108        The basic greedy diff algorithm. Currently, this is the default.
 109`minimal`;;
 110        Spend extra time to make sure the smallest possible diff is
 111        produced.
 112`patience`;;
 113        Use "patience diff" algorithm when generating patches.
 114`histogram`;;
 115        This algorithm extends the patience algorithm to "support
 116        low-occurrence common elements".
 117--
 118+
 119For instance, if you configured the `diff.algorithm` variable to a
 120non-default value and want to use the default one, then you
 121have to use `--diff-algorithm=default` option.
 122
 123--stat[=<width>[,<name-width>[,<count>]]]::
 124        Generate a diffstat. By default, as much space as necessary
 125        will be used for the filename part, and the rest for the graph
 126        part. Maximum width defaults to terminal width, or 80 columns
 127        if not connected to a terminal, and can be overridden by
 128        `<width>`. The width of the filename part can be limited by
 129        giving another width `<name-width>` after a comma. The width
 130        of the graph part can be limited by using
 131        `--stat-graph-width=<width>` (affects all commands generating
 132        a stat graph) or by setting `diff.statGraphWidth=<width>`
 133        (does not affect `git format-patch`).
 134        By giving a third parameter `<count>`, you can limit the
 135        output to the first `<count>` lines, followed by `...` if
 136        there are more.
 137+
 138These parameters can also be set individually with `--stat-width=<width>`,
 139`--stat-name-width=<name-width>` and `--stat-count=<count>`.
 140
 141--compact-summary::
 142        Output a condensed summary of extended header information such
 143        as file creations or deletions ("new" or "gone", optionally "+l"
 144        if it's a symlink) and mode changes ("+x" or "-x" for adding
 145        or removing executable bit respectively) in diffstat. The
 146        information is put between the filename part and the graph
 147        part. Implies `--stat`.
 148
 149--numstat::
 150        Similar to `--stat`, but shows number of added and
 151        deleted lines in decimal notation and pathname without
 152        abbreviation, to make it more machine friendly.  For
 153        binary files, outputs two `-` instead of saying
 154        `0 0`.
 155
 156--shortstat::
 157        Output only the last line of the `--stat` format containing total
 158        number of modified files, as well as number of added and deleted
 159        lines.
 160
 161-X[<param1,param2,...>]::
 162--dirstat[=<param1,param2,...>]::
 163        Output the distribution of relative amount of changes for each
 164        sub-directory. The behavior of `--dirstat` can be customized by
 165        passing it a comma separated list of parameters.
 166        The defaults are controlled by the `diff.dirstat` configuration
 167        variable (see linkgit:git-config[1]).
 168        The following parameters are available:
 169+
 170--
 171`changes`;;
 172        Compute the dirstat numbers by counting the lines that have been
 173        removed from the source, or added to the destination. This ignores
 174        the amount of pure code movements within a file.  In other words,
 175        rearranging lines in a file is not counted as much as other changes.
 176        This is the default behavior when no parameter is given.
 177`lines`;;
 178        Compute the dirstat numbers by doing the regular line-based diff
 179        analysis, and summing the removed/added line counts. (For binary
 180        files, count 64-byte chunks instead, since binary files have no
 181        natural concept of lines). This is a more expensive `--dirstat`
 182        behavior than the `changes` behavior, but it does count rearranged
 183        lines within a file as much as other changes. The resulting output
 184        is consistent with what you get from the other `--*stat` options.
 185`files`;;
 186        Compute the dirstat numbers by counting the number of files changed.
 187        Each changed file counts equally in the dirstat analysis. This is
 188        the computationally cheapest `--dirstat` behavior, since it does
 189        not have to look at the file contents at all.
 190`cumulative`;;
 191        Count changes in a child directory for the parent directory as well.
 192        Note that when using `cumulative`, the sum of the percentages
 193        reported may exceed 100%. The default (non-cumulative) behavior can
 194        be specified with the `noncumulative` parameter.
 195<limit>;;
 196        An integer parameter specifies a cut-off percent (3% by default).
 197        Directories contributing less than this percentage of the changes
 198        are not shown in the output.
 199--
 200+
 201Example: The following will count changed files, while ignoring
 202directories with less than 10% of the total amount of changed files,
 203and accumulating child directory counts in the parent directories:
 204`--dirstat=files,10,cumulative`.
 205
 206--cumulative::
 207        Synonym for --dirstat=cumulative
 208
 209--dirstat-by-file[=<param1,param2>...]::
 210        Synonym for --dirstat=files,param1,param2...
 211
 212--summary::
 213        Output a condensed summary of extended header information
 214        such as creations, renames and mode changes.
 215
 216ifndef::git-format-patch[]
 217--patch-with-stat::
 218        Synonym for `-p --stat`.
 219endif::git-format-patch[]
 220
 221ifndef::git-format-patch[]
 222
 223-z::
 224ifdef::git-log[]
 225        Separate the commits with NULs instead of with new newlines.
 226+
 227Also, when `--raw` or `--numstat` has been given, do not munge
 228pathnames and use NULs as output field terminators.
 229endif::git-log[]
 230ifndef::git-log[]
 231        When `--raw`, `--numstat`, `--name-only` or `--name-status` has been
 232        given, do not munge pathnames and use NULs as output field terminators.
 233endif::git-log[]
 234+
 235Without this option, pathnames with "unusual" characters are quoted as
 236explained for the configuration variable `core.quotePath` (see
 237linkgit:git-config[1]).
 238
 239--name-only::
 240        Show only names of changed files.
 241
 242--name-status::
 243        Show only names and status of changed files. See the description
 244        of the `--diff-filter` option on what the status letters mean.
 245
 246--submodule[=<format>]::
 247        Specify how differences in submodules are shown.  When specifying
 248        `--submodule=short` the 'short' format is used.  This format just
 249        shows the names of the commits at the beginning and end of the range.
 250        When `--submodule` or `--submodule=log` is specified, the 'log'
 251        format is used.  This format lists the commits in the range like
 252        linkgit:git-submodule[1] `summary` does.  When `--submodule=diff`
 253        is specified, the 'diff' format is used.  This format shows an
 254        inline diff of the changes in the submodule contents between the
 255        commit range.  Defaults to `diff.submodule` or the 'short' format
 256        if the config option is unset.
 257
 258--color[=<when>]::
 259        Show colored diff.
 260        `--color` (i.e. without '=<when>') is the same as `--color=always`.
 261        '<when>' can be one of `always`, `never`, or `auto`.
 262ifdef::git-diff[]
 263        It can be changed by the `color.ui` and `color.diff`
 264        configuration settings.
 265endif::git-diff[]
 266
 267--no-color::
 268        Turn off colored diff.
 269ifdef::git-diff[]
 270        This can be used to override configuration settings.
 271endif::git-diff[]
 272        It is the same as `--color=never`.
 273
 274--color-moved[=<mode>]::
 275        Moved lines of code are colored differently.
 276ifdef::git-diff[]
 277        It can be changed by the `diff.colorMoved` configuration setting.
 278endif::git-diff[]
 279        The <mode> defaults to 'no' if the option is not given
 280        and to 'zebra' if the option with no mode is given.
 281        The mode must be one of:
 282+
 283--
 284no::
 285        Moved lines are not highlighted.
 286default::
 287        Is a synonym for `zebra`. This may change to a more sensible mode
 288        in the future.
 289plain::
 290        Any line that is added in one location and was removed
 291        in another location will be colored with 'color.diff.newMoved'.
 292        Similarly 'color.diff.oldMoved' will be used for removed lines
 293        that are added somewhere else in the diff. This mode picks up any
 294        moved line, but it is not very useful in a review to determine
 295        if a block of code was moved without permutation.
 296blocks::
 297        Blocks of moved text of at least 20 alphanumeric characters
 298        are detected greedily. The detected blocks are
 299        painted using either the 'color.diff.{old,new}Moved' color.
 300        Adjacent blocks cannot be told apart.
 301zebra::
 302        Blocks of moved text are detected as in 'blocks' mode. The blocks
 303        are painted using either the 'color.diff.{old,new}Moved' color or
 304        'color.diff.{old,new}MovedAlternative'. The change between
 305        the two colors indicates that a new block was detected.
 306dimmed-zebra::
 307        Similar to 'zebra', but additional dimming of uninteresting parts
 308        of moved code is performed. The bordering lines of two adjacent
 309        blocks are considered interesting, the rest is uninteresting.
 310        `dimmed_zebra` is a deprecated synonym.
 311--
 312
 313--color-moved-ws=<modes>::
 314        This configures how white spaces are ignored when performing the
 315        move detection for `--color-moved`.
 316ifdef::git-diff[]
 317        It can be set by the `diff.colorMovedWS` configuration setting.
 318endif::git-diff[]
 319        These modes can be given as a comma separated list:
 320+
 321--
 322ignore-space-at-eol::
 323        Ignore changes in whitespace at EOL.
 324ignore-space-change::
 325        Ignore changes in amount of whitespace.  This ignores whitespace
 326        at line end, and considers all other sequences of one or
 327        more whitespace characters to be equivalent.
 328ignore-all-space::
 329        Ignore whitespace when comparing lines. This ignores differences
 330        even if one line has whitespace where the other line has none.
 331allow-indentation-change::
 332        Initially ignore any white spaces in the move detection, then
 333        group the moved code blocks only into a block if the change in
 334        whitespace is the same per line. This is incompatible with the
 335        other modes.
 336--
 337
 338--word-diff[=<mode>]::
 339        Show a word diff, using the <mode> to delimit changed words.
 340        By default, words are delimited by whitespace; see
 341        `--word-diff-regex` below.  The <mode> defaults to 'plain', and
 342        must be one of:
 343+
 344--
 345color::
 346        Highlight changed words using only colors.  Implies `--color`.
 347plain::
 348        Show words as `[-removed-]` and `{+added+}`.  Makes no
 349        attempts to escape the delimiters if they appear in the input,
 350        so the output may be ambiguous.
 351porcelain::
 352        Use a special line-based format intended for script
 353        consumption.  Added/removed/unchanged runs are printed in the
 354        usual unified diff format, starting with a `+`/`-`/` `
 355        character at the beginning of the line and extending to the
 356        end of the line.  Newlines in the input are represented by a
 357        tilde `~` on a line of its own.
 358none::
 359        Disable word diff again.
 360--
 361+
 362Note that despite the name of the first mode, color is used to
 363highlight the changed parts in all modes if enabled.
 364
 365--word-diff-regex=<regex>::
 366        Use <regex> to decide what a word is, instead of considering
 367        runs of non-whitespace to be a word.  Also implies
 368        `--word-diff` unless it was already enabled.
 369+
 370Every non-overlapping match of the
 371<regex> is considered a word.  Anything between these matches is
 372considered whitespace and ignored(!) for the purposes of finding
 373differences.  You may want to append `|[^[:space:]]` to your regular
 374expression to make sure that it matches all non-whitespace characters.
 375A match that contains a newline is silently truncated(!) at the
 376newline.
 377+
 378For example, `--word-diff-regex=.` will treat each character as a word
 379and, correspondingly, show differences character by character.
 380+
 381The regex can also be set via a diff driver or configuration option, see
 382linkgit:gitattributes[5] or linkgit:git-config[1].  Giving it explicitly
 383overrides any diff driver or configuration setting.  Diff drivers
 384override configuration settings.
 385
 386--color-words[=<regex>]::
 387        Equivalent to `--word-diff=color` plus (if a regex was
 388        specified) `--word-diff-regex=<regex>`.
 389endif::git-format-patch[]
 390
 391--no-renames::
 392        Turn off rename detection, even when the configuration
 393        file gives the default to do so.
 394
 395--[no-]rename-empty::
 396        Whether to use empty blobs as rename source.
 397
 398ifndef::git-format-patch[]
 399--check::
 400        Warn if changes introduce conflict markers or whitespace errors.
 401        What are considered whitespace errors is controlled by `core.whitespace`
 402        configuration.  By default, trailing whitespaces (including
 403        lines that consist solely of whitespaces) and a space character
 404        that is immediately followed by a tab character inside the
 405        initial indent of the line are considered whitespace errors.
 406        Exits with non-zero status if problems are found. Not compatible
 407        with --exit-code.
 408
 409--ws-error-highlight=<kind>::
 410        Highlight whitespace errors in the `context`, `old` or `new`
 411        lines of the diff.  Multiple values are separated by comma,
 412        `none` resets previous values, `default` reset the list to
 413        `new` and `all` is a shorthand for `old,new,context`.  When
 414        this option is not given, and the configuration variable
 415        `diff.wsErrorHighlight` is not set, only whitespace errors in
 416        `new` lines are highlighted. The whitespace errors are colored
 417        with `color.diff.whitespace`.
 418
 419endif::git-format-patch[]
 420
 421--full-index::
 422        Instead of the first handful of characters, show the full
 423        pre- and post-image blob object names on the "index"
 424        line when generating patch format output.
 425
 426--binary::
 427        In addition to `--full-index`, output a binary diff that
 428        can be applied with `git-apply`. Implies `--patch`.
 429
 430--abbrev[=<n>]::
 431        Instead of showing the full 40-byte hexadecimal object
 432        name in diff-raw format output and diff-tree header
 433        lines, show only a partial prefix.  This is
 434        independent of the `--full-index` option above, which controls
 435        the diff-patch output format.  Non default number of
 436        digits can be specified with `--abbrev=<n>`.
 437
 438-B[<n>][/<m>]::
 439--break-rewrites[=[<n>][/<m>]]::
 440        Break complete rewrite changes into pairs of delete and
 441        create. This serves two purposes:
 442+
 443It affects the way a change that amounts to a total rewrite of a file
 444not as a series of deletion and insertion mixed together with a very
 445few lines that happen to match textually as the context, but as a
 446single deletion of everything old followed by a single insertion of
 447everything new, and the number `m` controls this aspect of the -B
 448option (defaults to 60%). `-B/70%` specifies that less than 30% of the
 449original should remain in the result for Git to consider it a total
 450rewrite (i.e. otherwise the resulting patch will be a series of
 451deletion and insertion mixed together with context lines).
 452+
 453When used with -M, a totally-rewritten file is also considered as the
 454source of a rename (usually -M only considers a file that disappeared
 455as the source of a rename), and the number `n` controls this aspect of
 456the -B option (defaults to 50%). `-B20%` specifies that a change with
 457addition and deletion compared to 20% or more of the file's size are
 458eligible for being picked up as a possible source of a rename to
 459another file.
 460
 461-M[<n>]::
 462--find-renames[=<n>]::
 463ifndef::git-log[]
 464        Detect renames.
 465endif::git-log[]
 466ifdef::git-log[]
 467        If generating diffs, detect and report renames for each commit.
 468        For following files across renames while traversing history, see
 469        `--follow`.
 470endif::git-log[]
 471        If `n` is specified, it is a threshold on the similarity
 472        index (i.e. amount of addition/deletions compared to the
 473        file's size). For example, `-M90%` means Git should consider a
 474        delete/add pair to be a rename if more than 90% of the file
 475        hasn't changed.  Without a `%` sign, the number is to be read as
 476        a fraction, with a decimal point before it.  I.e., `-M5` becomes
 477        0.5, and is thus the same as `-M50%`.  Similarly, `-M05` is
 478        the same as `-M5%`.  To limit detection to exact renames, use
 479        `-M100%`.  The default similarity index is 50%.
 480
 481-C[<n>]::
 482--find-copies[=<n>]::
 483        Detect copies as well as renames.  See also `--find-copies-harder`.
 484        If `n` is specified, it has the same meaning as for `-M<n>`.
 485
 486--find-copies-harder::
 487        For performance reasons, by default, `-C` option finds copies only
 488        if the original file of the copy was modified in the same
 489        changeset.  This flag makes the command
 490        inspect unmodified files as candidates for the source of
 491        copy.  This is a very expensive operation for large
 492        projects, so use it with caution.  Giving more than one
 493        `-C` option has the same effect.
 494
 495-D::
 496--irreversible-delete::
 497        Omit the preimage for deletes, i.e. print only the header but not
 498        the diff between the preimage and `/dev/null`. The resulting patch
 499        is not meant to be applied with `patch` or `git apply`; this is
 500        solely for people who want to just concentrate on reviewing the
 501        text after the change. In addition, the output obviously lacks
 502        enough information to apply such a patch in reverse, even manually,
 503        hence the name of the option.
 504+
 505When used together with `-B`, omit also the preimage in the deletion part
 506of a delete/create pair.
 507
 508-l<num>::
 509        The `-M` and `-C` options require O(n^2) processing time where n
 510        is the number of potential rename/copy targets.  This
 511        option prevents rename/copy detection from running if
 512        the number of rename/copy targets exceeds the specified
 513        number.
 514
 515ifndef::git-format-patch[]
 516--diff-filter=[(A|C|D|M|R|T|U|X|B)...[*]]::
 517        Select only files that are Added (`A`), Copied (`C`),
 518        Deleted (`D`), Modified (`M`), Renamed (`R`), have their
 519        type (i.e. regular file, symlink, submodule, ...) changed (`T`),
 520        are Unmerged (`U`), are
 521        Unknown (`X`), or have had their pairing Broken (`B`).
 522        Any combination of the filter characters (including none) can be used.
 523        When `*` (All-or-none) is added to the combination, all
 524        paths are selected if there is any file that matches
 525        other criteria in the comparison; if there is no file
 526        that matches other criteria, nothing is selected.
 527+
 528Also, these upper-case letters can be downcased to exclude.  E.g.
 529`--diff-filter=ad` excludes added and deleted paths.
 530+
 531Note that not all diffs can feature all types. For instance, diffs
 532from the index to the working tree can never have Added entries
 533(because the set of paths included in the diff is limited by what is in
 534the index).  Similarly, copied and renamed entries cannot appear if
 535detection for those types is disabled.
 536
 537-S<string>::
 538        Look for differences that change the number of occurrences of
 539        the specified string (i.e. addition/deletion) in a file.
 540        Intended for the scripter's use.
 541+
 542It is useful when you're looking for an exact block of code (like a
 543struct), and want to know the history of that block since it first
 544came into being: use the feature iteratively to feed the interesting
 545block in the preimage back into `-S`, and keep going until you get the
 546very first version of the block.
 547+
 548Binary files are searched as well.
 549
 550-G<regex>::
 551        Look for differences whose patch text contains added/removed
 552        lines that match <regex>.
 553+
 554To illustrate the difference between `-S<regex> --pickaxe-regex` and
 555`-G<regex>`, consider a commit with the following diff in the same
 556file:
 557+
 558----
 559+    return !regexec(regexp, two->ptr, 1, &regmatch, 0);
 560...
 561-    hit = !regexec(regexp, mf2.ptr, 1, &regmatch, 0);
 562----
 563+
 564While `git log -G"regexec\(regexp"` will show this commit, `git log
 565-S"regexec\(regexp" --pickaxe-regex` will not (because the number of
 566occurrences of that string did not change).
 567+
 568Unless `--text` is supplied patches of binary files without a textconv
 569filter will be ignored.
 570+
 571See the 'pickaxe' entry in linkgit:gitdiffcore[7] for more
 572information.
 573
 574--find-object=<object-id>::
 575        Look for differences that change the number of occurrences of
 576        the specified object. Similar to `-S`, just the argument is different
 577        in that it doesn't search for a specific string but for a specific
 578        object id.
 579+
 580The object can be a blob or a submodule commit. It implies the `-t` option in
 581`git-log` to also find trees.
 582
 583--pickaxe-all::
 584        When `-S` or `-G` finds a change, show all the changes in that
 585        changeset, not just the files that contain the change
 586        in <string>.
 587
 588--pickaxe-regex::
 589        Treat the <string> given to `-S` as an extended POSIX regular
 590        expression to match.
 591
 592endif::git-format-patch[]
 593
 594-O<orderfile>::
 595        Control the order in which files appear in the output.
 596        This overrides the `diff.orderFile` configuration variable
 597        (see linkgit:git-config[1]).  To cancel `diff.orderFile`,
 598        use `-O/dev/null`.
 599+
 600The output order is determined by the order of glob patterns in
 601<orderfile>.
 602All files with pathnames that match the first pattern are output
 603first, all files with pathnames that match the second pattern (but not
 604the first) are output next, and so on.
 605All files with pathnames that do not match any pattern are output
 606last, as if there was an implicit match-all pattern at the end of the
 607file.
 608If multiple pathnames have the same rank (they match the same pattern
 609but no earlier patterns), their output order relative to each other is
 610the normal order.
 611+
 612<orderfile> is parsed as follows:
 613+
 614--
 615 - Blank lines are ignored, so they can be used as separators for
 616   readability.
 617
 618 - Lines starting with a hash ("`#`") are ignored, so they can be used
 619   for comments.  Add a backslash ("`\`") to the beginning of the
 620   pattern if it starts with a hash.
 621
 622 - Each other line contains a single pattern.
 623--
 624+
 625Patterns have the same syntax and semantics as patterns used for
 626fnmatch(3) without the FNM_PATHNAME flag, except a pathname also
 627matches a pattern if removing any number of the final pathname
 628components matches the pattern.  For example, the pattern "`foo*bar`"
 629matches "`fooasdfbar`" and "`foo/bar/baz/asdf`" but not "`foobarx`".
 630
 631ifndef::git-format-patch[]
 632-R::
 633        Swap two inputs; that is, show differences from index or
 634        on-disk file to tree contents.
 635
 636--relative[=<path>]::
 637        When run from a subdirectory of the project, it can be
 638        told to exclude changes outside the directory and show
 639        pathnames relative to it with this option.  When you are
 640        not in a subdirectory (e.g. in a bare repository), you
 641        can name which subdirectory to make the output relative
 642        to by giving a <path> as an argument.
 643endif::git-format-patch[]
 644
 645-a::
 646--text::
 647        Treat all files as text.
 648
 649--ignore-cr-at-eol::
 650        Ignore carriage-return at the end of line when doing a comparison.
 651
 652--ignore-space-at-eol::
 653        Ignore changes in whitespace at EOL.
 654
 655-b::
 656--ignore-space-change::
 657        Ignore changes in amount of whitespace.  This ignores whitespace
 658        at line end, and considers all other sequences of one or
 659        more whitespace characters to be equivalent.
 660
 661-w::
 662--ignore-all-space::
 663        Ignore whitespace when comparing lines.  This ignores
 664        differences even if one line has whitespace where the other
 665        line has none.
 666
 667--ignore-blank-lines::
 668        Ignore changes whose lines are all blank.
 669
 670--inter-hunk-context=<lines>::
 671        Show the context between diff hunks, up to the specified number
 672        of lines, thereby fusing hunks that are close to each other.
 673        Defaults to `diff.interHunkContext` or 0 if the config option
 674        is unset.
 675
 676-W::
 677--function-context::
 678        Show whole surrounding functions of changes.
 679
 680ifndef::git-format-patch[]
 681ifndef::git-log[]
 682--exit-code::
 683        Make the program exit with codes similar to diff(1).
 684        That is, it exits with 1 if there were differences and
 685        0 means no differences.
 686
 687--quiet::
 688        Disable all output of the program. Implies `--exit-code`.
 689endif::git-log[]
 690endif::git-format-patch[]
 691
 692--ext-diff::
 693        Allow an external diff helper to be executed. If you set an
 694        external diff driver with linkgit:gitattributes[5], you need
 695        to use this option with linkgit:git-log[1] and friends.
 696
 697--no-ext-diff::
 698        Disallow external diff drivers.
 699
 700--textconv::
 701--no-textconv::
 702        Allow (or disallow) external text conversion filters to be run
 703        when comparing binary files. See linkgit:gitattributes[5] for
 704        details. Because textconv filters are typically a one-way
 705        conversion, the resulting diff is suitable for human
 706        consumption, but cannot be applied. For this reason, textconv
 707        filters are enabled by default only for linkgit:git-diff[1] and
 708        linkgit:git-log[1], but not for linkgit:git-format-patch[1] or
 709        diff plumbing commands.
 710
 711--ignore-submodules[=<when>]::
 712        Ignore changes to submodules in the diff generation. <when> can be
 713        either "none", "untracked", "dirty" or "all", which is the default.
 714        Using "none" will consider the submodule modified when it either contains
 715        untracked or modified files or its HEAD differs from the commit recorded
 716        in the superproject and can be used to override any settings of the
 717        'ignore' option in linkgit:git-config[1] or linkgit:gitmodules[5]. When
 718        "untracked" is used submodules are not considered dirty when they only
 719        contain untracked content (but they are still scanned for modified
 720        content). Using "dirty" ignores all changes to the work tree of submodules,
 721        only changes to the commits stored in the superproject are shown (this was
 722        the behavior until 1.7.0). Using "all" hides all changes to submodules.
 723
 724--src-prefix=<prefix>::
 725        Show the given source prefix instead of "a/".
 726
 727--dst-prefix=<prefix>::
 728        Show the given destination prefix instead of "b/".
 729
 730--no-prefix::
 731        Do not show any source or destination prefix.
 732
 733--line-prefix=<prefix>::
 734        Prepend an additional prefix to every line of output.
 735
 736--ita-invisible-in-index::
 737        By default entries added by "git add -N" appear as an existing
 738        empty file in "git diff" and a new file in "git diff --cached".
 739        This option makes the entry appear as a new file in "git diff"
 740        and non-existent in "git diff --cached". This option could be
 741        reverted with `--ita-visible-in-index`. Both options are
 742        experimental and could be removed in future.
 743
 744For more detailed explanation on these common options, see also
 745linkgit:gitdiffcore[7].