1The output format from "git-diff-index", "git-diff-tree", 2"git-diff-files" and "git diff --raw" are very similar. 3 4These commands all compare two sets of things; what is 5compared differs: 6 7git-diff-index <tree-ish>:: 8 compares the <tree-ish> and the files on the filesystem. 9 10git-diff-index --cached <tree-ish>:: 11 compares the <tree-ish> and the index. 12 13git-diff-tree [-r] <tree-ish-1> <tree-ish-2> [<pattern>...]:: 14 compares the trees named by the two arguments. 15 16git-diff-files [<pattern>...]:: 17 compares the index and the files on the filesystem. 18 19 20An output line is formatted this way: 21 22------------------------------------------------ 23in-place edit :100644 100644 bcd1234... 0123456... M file0 24copy-edit :100644 100644 abcd123... 1234567... C68 file1 file2 25rename-edit :100644 100644 abcd123... 1234567... R86 file1 file3 26create :000000 100644 0000000... 1234567... A file4 27delete :100644 000000 1234567... 0000000... D file5 28unmerged :000000 000000 0000000... 0000000... U file6 29------------------------------------------------ 30 31That is, from the left to the right: 32 33. a colon. 34. mode for "src"; 000000 if creation or unmerged. 35. a space. 36. mode for "dst"; 000000 if deletion or unmerged. 37. a space. 38. sha1 for "src"; 0\{40\} if creation or unmerged. 39. a space. 40. sha1 for "dst"; 0\{40\} if creation, unmerged or "look at work tree". 41. a space. 42. status, followed by optional "score" number. 43. a tab or a NUL when '-z' option is used. 44. path for "src" 45. a tab or a NUL when '-z' option is used; only exists for C or R. 46. path for "dst"; only exists for C or R. 47. an LF or a NUL when '-z' option is used, to terminate the record. 48 49Possible status letters are: 50 51- A: addition of a file 52- C: copy of a file into a new one 53- D: deletion of a file 54- M: modification of the contents or mode of a file 55- R: renaming of a file 56- T: change in the type of the file 57- U: file is unmerged (you must complete the merge before it can 58be committed) 59- X: "unknown" change type (most probably a bug, please report it) 60 61Status letters C and R are always followed by a score (denoting the 62percentage of similarity between the source and target of the move or 63copy), and are the only ones to be so. 64 65<sha1> is shown as all 0's if a file is new on the filesystem 66and it is out of sync with the index. 67 68Example: 69 70------------------------------------------------ 71:100644 100644 5be4a4...... 000000...... M file.c 72------------------------------------------------ 73 74When `-z` option is not used, TAB, LF, and backslash characters 75in pathnames are represented as `\t`, `\n`, and `\\`, 76respectively. 77 78diff format for merges 79---------------------- 80 81"git-diff-tree", "git-diff-files" and "git-diff --raw" 82can take '-c' or '--cc' option 83to generate diff output also for merge commits. The output differs 84from the format described above in the following way: 85 86. there is a colon for each parent 87. there are more "src" modes and "src" sha1 88. status is concatenated status characters for each parent 89. no optional "score" number 90. single path, only for "dst" 91 92Example: 93 94------------------------------------------------ 95::100644 100644 100644 fabadb8... cc95eb0... 4866510... MM describe.c 96------------------------------------------------ 97 98Note that 'combined diff' lists only files which were modified from 99all parents. 100 101 102include::diff-generate-patch.txt[] 103 104 105other diff formats 106------------------ 107 108The `--summary` option describes newly added, deleted, renamed and 109copied files. The `--stat` option adds diffstat(1) graph to the 110output. These options can be combined with other options, such as 111`-p`, and are meant for human consumption. 112 113When showing a change that involves a rename or a copy, `--stat` output 114formats the pathnames compactly by combining common prefix and suffix of 115the pathnames. For example, a change that moves `arch/i386/Makefile` to 116`arch/x86/Makefile` while modifying 4 lines will be shown like this: 117 118------------------------------------ 119arch/{i386 => x86}/Makefile | 4 +-- 120------------------------------------ 121 122The `--numstat` option gives the diffstat(1) information but is designed 123for easier machine consumption. An entry in `--numstat` output looks 124like this: 125 126---------------------------------------- 1271 2 README 1283 1 arch/{i386 => x86}/Makefile 129---------------------------------------- 130 131That is, from left to right: 132 133. the number of added lines; 134. a tab; 135. the number of deleted lines; 136. a tab; 137. pathname (possibly with rename/copy information); 138. a newline. 139 140When `-z` output option is in effect, the output is formatted this way: 141 142---------------------------------------- 1431 2 README NUL 1443 1 NUL arch/i386/Makefile NUL arch/x86/Makefile NUL 145---------------------------------------- 146 147That is: 148 149. the number of added lines; 150. a tab; 151. the number of deleted lines; 152. a tab; 153. a NUL (only exists if renamed/copied); 154. pathname in preimage; 155. a NUL (only exists if renamed/copied); 156. pathname in postimage (only exists if renamed/copied); 157. a NUL. 158 159The extra `NUL` before the preimage path in renamed case is to allow 160scripts that read the output to tell if the current record being read is 161a single-path record or a rename/copy record without reading ahead. 162After reading added and deleted lines, reading up to `NUL` would yield 163the pathname, but if that is `NUL`, the record will show two paths.