Documentation / diff-options.txton commit First batch after Git 2.23 (745f681)
   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--no-color-moved::
 314        Turn off move detection. This can be used to override configuration
 315        settings. It is the same as `--color-moved=no`.
 316
 317--color-moved-ws=<modes>::
 318        This configures how whitespace is ignored when performing the
 319        move detection for `--color-moved`.
 320ifdef::git-diff[]
 321        It can be set by the `diff.colorMovedWS` configuration setting.
 322endif::git-diff[]
 323        These modes can be given as a comma separated list:
 324+
 325--
 326no::
 327        Do not ignore whitespace when performing move detection.
 328ignore-space-at-eol::
 329        Ignore changes in whitespace at EOL.
 330ignore-space-change::
 331        Ignore changes in amount of whitespace.  This ignores whitespace
 332        at line end, and considers all other sequences of one or
 333        more whitespace characters to be equivalent.
 334ignore-all-space::
 335        Ignore whitespace when comparing lines. This ignores differences
 336        even if one line has whitespace where the other line has none.
 337allow-indentation-change::
 338        Initially ignore any whitespace in the move detection, then
 339        group the moved code blocks only into a block if the change in
 340        whitespace is the same per line. This is incompatible with the
 341        other modes.
 342--
 343
 344--no-color-moved-ws::
 345        Do not ignore whitespace when performing move detection. This can be
 346        used to override configuration settings. It is the same as
 347        `--color-moved-ws=no`.
 348
 349--word-diff[=<mode>]::
 350        Show a word diff, using the <mode> to delimit changed words.
 351        By default, words are delimited by whitespace; see
 352        `--word-diff-regex` below.  The <mode> defaults to 'plain', and
 353        must be one of:
 354+
 355--
 356color::
 357        Highlight changed words using only colors.  Implies `--color`.
 358plain::
 359        Show words as `[-removed-]` and `{+added+}`.  Makes no
 360        attempts to escape the delimiters if they appear in the input,
 361        so the output may be ambiguous.
 362porcelain::
 363        Use a special line-based format intended for script
 364        consumption.  Added/removed/unchanged runs are printed in the
 365        usual unified diff format, starting with a `+`/`-`/` `
 366        character at the beginning of the line and extending to the
 367        end of the line.  Newlines in the input are represented by a
 368        tilde `~` on a line of its own.
 369none::
 370        Disable word diff again.
 371--
 372+
 373Note that despite the name of the first mode, color is used to
 374highlight the changed parts in all modes if enabled.
 375
 376--word-diff-regex=<regex>::
 377        Use <regex> to decide what a word is, instead of considering
 378        runs of non-whitespace to be a word.  Also implies
 379        `--word-diff` unless it was already enabled.
 380+
 381Every non-overlapping match of the
 382<regex> is considered a word.  Anything between these matches is
 383considered whitespace and ignored(!) for the purposes of finding
 384differences.  You may want to append `|[^[:space:]]` to your regular
 385expression to make sure that it matches all non-whitespace characters.
 386A match that contains a newline is silently truncated(!) at the
 387newline.
 388+
 389For example, `--word-diff-regex=.` will treat each character as a word
 390and, correspondingly, show differences character by character.
 391+
 392The regex can also be set via a diff driver or configuration option, see
 393linkgit:gitattributes[5] or linkgit:git-config[1].  Giving it explicitly
 394overrides any diff driver or configuration setting.  Diff drivers
 395override configuration settings.
 396
 397--color-words[=<regex>]::
 398        Equivalent to `--word-diff=color` plus (if a regex was
 399        specified) `--word-diff-regex=<regex>`.
 400endif::git-format-patch[]
 401
 402--no-renames::
 403        Turn off rename detection, even when the configuration
 404        file gives the default to do so.
 405
 406--[no-]rename-empty::
 407        Whether to use empty blobs as rename source.
 408
 409ifndef::git-format-patch[]
 410--check::
 411        Warn if changes introduce conflict markers or whitespace errors.
 412        What are considered whitespace errors is controlled by `core.whitespace`
 413        configuration.  By default, trailing whitespaces (including
 414        lines that consist solely of whitespaces) and a space character
 415        that is immediately followed by a tab character inside the
 416        initial indent of the line are considered whitespace errors.
 417        Exits with non-zero status if problems are found. Not compatible
 418        with --exit-code.
 419
 420--ws-error-highlight=<kind>::
 421        Highlight whitespace errors in the `context`, `old` or `new`
 422        lines of the diff.  Multiple values are separated by comma,
 423        `none` resets previous values, `default` reset the list to
 424        `new` and `all` is a shorthand for `old,new,context`.  When
 425        this option is not given, and the configuration variable
 426        `diff.wsErrorHighlight` is not set, only whitespace errors in
 427        `new` lines are highlighted. The whitespace errors are colored
 428        with `color.diff.whitespace`.
 429
 430endif::git-format-patch[]
 431
 432--full-index::
 433        Instead of the first handful of characters, show the full
 434        pre- and post-image blob object names on the "index"
 435        line when generating patch format output.
 436
 437--binary::
 438        In addition to `--full-index`, output a binary diff that
 439        can be applied with `git-apply`. Implies `--patch`.
 440
 441--abbrev[=<n>]::
 442        Instead of showing the full 40-byte hexadecimal object
 443        name in diff-raw format output and diff-tree header
 444        lines, show only a partial prefix.  This is
 445        independent of the `--full-index` option above, which controls
 446        the diff-patch output format.  Non default number of
 447        digits can be specified with `--abbrev=<n>`.
 448
 449-B[<n>][/<m>]::
 450--break-rewrites[=[<n>][/<m>]]::
 451        Break complete rewrite changes into pairs of delete and
 452        create. This serves two purposes:
 453+
 454It affects the way a change that amounts to a total rewrite of a file
 455not as a series of deletion and insertion mixed together with a very
 456few lines that happen to match textually as the context, but as a
 457single deletion of everything old followed by a single insertion of
 458everything new, and the number `m` controls this aspect of the -B
 459option (defaults to 60%). `-B/70%` specifies that less than 30% of the
 460original should remain in the result for Git to consider it a total
 461rewrite (i.e. otherwise the resulting patch will be a series of
 462deletion and insertion mixed together with context lines).
 463+
 464When used with -M, a totally-rewritten file is also considered as the
 465source of a rename (usually -M only considers a file that disappeared
 466as the source of a rename), and the number `n` controls this aspect of
 467the -B option (defaults to 50%). `-B20%` specifies that a change with
 468addition and deletion compared to 20% or more of the file's size are
 469eligible for being picked up as a possible source of a rename to
 470another file.
 471
 472-M[<n>]::
 473--find-renames[=<n>]::
 474ifndef::git-log[]
 475        Detect renames.
 476endif::git-log[]
 477ifdef::git-log[]
 478        If generating diffs, detect and report renames for each commit.
 479        For following files across renames while traversing history, see
 480        `--follow`.
 481endif::git-log[]
 482        If `n` is specified, it is a threshold on the similarity
 483        index (i.e. amount of addition/deletions compared to the
 484        file's size). For example, `-M90%` means Git should consider a
 485        delete/add pair to be a rename if more than 90% of the file
 486        hasn't changed.  Without a `%` sign, the number is to be read as
 487        a fraction, with a decimal point before it.  I.e., `-M5` becomes
 488        0.5, and is thus the same as `-M50%`.  Similarly, `-M05` is
 489        the same as `-M5%`.  To limit detection to exact renames, use
 490        `-M100%`.  The default similarity index is 50%.
 491
 492-C[<n>]::
 493--find-copies[=<n>]::
 494        Detect copies as well as renames.  See also `--find-copies-harder`.
 495        If `n` is specified, it has the same meaning as for `-M<n>`.
 496
 497--find-copies-harder::
 498        For performance reasons, by default, `-C` option finds copies only
 499        if the original file of the copy was modified in the same
 500        changeset.  This flag makes the command
 501        inspect unmodified files as candidates for the source of
 502        copy.  This is a very expensive operation for large
 503        projects, so use it with caution.  Giving more than one
 504        `-C` option has the same effect.
 505
 506-D::
 507--irreversible-delete::
 508        Omit the preimage for deletes, i.e. print only the header but not
 509        the diff between the preimage and `/dev/null`. The resulting patch
 510        is not meant to be applied with `patch` or `git apply`; this is
 511        solely for people who want to just concentrate on reviewing the
 512        text after the change. In addition, the output obviously lacks
 513        enough information to apply such a patch in reverse, even manually,
 514        hence the name of the option.
 515+
 516When used together with `-B`, omit also the preimage in the deletion part
 517of a delete/create pair.
 518
 519-l<num>::
 520        The `-M` and `-C` options require O(n^2) processing time where n
 521        is the number of potential rename/copy targets.  This
 522        option prevents rename/copy detection from running if
 523        the number of rename/copy targets exceeds the specified
 524        number.
 525
 526ifndef::git-format-patch[]
 527--diff-filter=[(A|C|D|M|R|T|U|X|B)...[*]]::
 528        Select only files that are Added (`A`), Copied (`C`),
 529        Deleted (`D`), Modified (`M`), Renamed (`R`), have their
 530        type (i.e. regular file, symlink, submodule, ...) changed (`T`),
 531        are Unmerged (`U`), are
 532        Unknown (`X`), or have had their pairing Broken (`B`).
 533        Any combination of the filter characters (including none) can be used.
 534        When `*` (All-or-none) is added to the combination, all
 535        paths are selected if there is any file that matches
 536        other criteria in the comparison; if there is no file
 537        that matches other criteria, nothing is selected.
 538+
 539Also, these upper-case letters can be downcased to exclude.  E.g.
 540`--diff-filter=ad` excludes added and deleted paths.
 541+
 542Note that not all diffs can feature all types. For instance, diffs
 543from the index to the working tree can never have Added entries
 544(because the set of paths included in the diff is limited by what is in
 545the index).  Similarly, copied and renamed entries cannot appear if
 546detection for those types is disabled.
 547
 548-S<string>::
 549        Look for differences that change the number of occurrences of
 550        the specified string (i.e. addition/deletion) in a file.
 551        Intended for the scripter's use.
 552+
 553It is useful when you're looking for an exact block of code (like a
 554struct), and want to know the history of that block since it first
 555came into being: use the feature iteratively to feed the interesting
 556block in the preimage back into `-S`, and keep going until you get the
 557very first version of the block.
 558+
 559Binary files are searched as well.
 560
 561-G<regex>::
 562        Look for differences whose patch text contains added/removed
 563        lines that match <regex>.
 564+
 565To illustrate the difference between `-S<regex> --pickaxe-regex` and
 566`-G<regex>`, consider a commit with the following diff in the same
 567file:
 568+
 569----
 570+    return !regexec(regexp, two->ptr, 1, &regmatch, 0);
 571...
 572-    hit = !regexec(regexp, mf2.ptr, 1, &regmatch, 0);
 573----
 574+
 575While `git log -G"regexec\(regexp"` will show this commit, `git log
 576-S"regexec\(regexp" --pickaxe-regex` will not (because the number of
 577occurrences of that string did not change).
 578+
 579Unless `--text` is supplied patches of binary files without a textconv
 580filter will be ignored.
 581+
 582See the 'pickaxe' entry in linkgit:gitdiffcore[7] for more
 583information.
 584
 585--find-object=<object-id>::
 586        Look for differences that change the number of occurrences of
 587        the specified object. Similar to `-S`, just the argument is different
 588        in that it doesn't search for a specific string but for a specific
 589        object id.
 590+
 591The object can be a blob or a submodule commit. It implies the `-t` option in
 592`git-log` to also find trees.
 593
 594--pickaxe-all::
 595        When `-S` or `-G` finds a change, show all the changes in that
 596        changeset, not just the files that contain the change
 597        in <string>.
 598
 599--pickaxe-regex::
 600        Treat the <string> given to `-S` as an extended POSIX regular
 601        expression to match.
 602
 603endif::git-format-patch[]
 604
 605-O<orderfile>::
 606        Control the order in which files appear in the output.
 607        This overrides the `diff.orderFile` configuration variable
 608        (see linkgit:git-config[1]).  To cancel `diff.orderFile`,
 609        use `-O/dev/null`.
 610+
 611The output order is determined by the order of glob patterns in
 612<orderfile>.
 613All files with pathnames that match the first pattern are output
 614first, all files with pathnames that match the second pattern (but not
 615the first) are output next, and so on.
 616All files with pathnames that do not match any pattern are output
 617last, as if there was an implicit match-all pattern at the end of the
 618file.
 619If multiple pathnames have the same rank (they match the same pattern
 620but no earlier patterns), their output order relative to each other is
 621the normal order.
 622+
 623<orderfile> is parsed as follows:
 624+
 625--
 626 - Blank lines are ignored, so they can be used as separators for
 627   readability.
 628
 629 - Lines starting with a hash ("`#`") are ignored, so they can be used
 630   for comments.  Add a backslash ("`\`") to the beginning of the
 631   pattern if it starts with a hash.
 632
 633 - Each other line contains a single pattern.
 634--
 635+
 636Patterns have the same syntax and semantics as patterns used for
 637fnmatch(3) without the FNM_PATHNAME flag, except a pathname also
 638matches a pattern if removing any number of the final pathname
 639components matches the pattern.  For example, the pattern "`foo*bar`"
 640matches "`fooasdfbar`" and "`foo/bar/baz/asdf`" but not "`foobarx`".
 641
 642ifndef::git-format-patch[]
 643-R::
 644        Swap two inputs; that is, show differences from index or
 645        on-disk file to tree contents.
 646
 647--relative[=<path>]::
 648        When run from a subdirectory of the project, it can be
 649        told to exclude changes outside the directory and show
 650        pathnames relative to it with this option.  When you are
 651        not in a subdirectory (e.g. in a bare repository), you
 652        can name which subdirectory to make the output relative
 653        to by giving a <path> as an argument.
 654endif::git-format-patch[]
 655
 656-a::
 657--text::
 658        Treat all files as text.
 659
 660--ignore-cr-at-eol::
 661        Ignore carriage-return at the end of line when doing a comparison.
 662
 663--ignore-space-at-eol::
 664        Ignore changes in whitespace at EOL.
 665
 666-b::
 667--ignore-space-change::
 668        Ignore changes in amount of whitespace.  This ignores whitespace
 669        at line end, and considers all other sequences of one or
 670        more whitespace characters to be equivalent.
 671
 672-w::
 673--ignore-all-space::
 674        Ignore whitespace when comparing lines.  This ignores
 675        differences even if one line has whitespace where the other
 676        line has none.
 677
 678--ignore-blank-lines::
 679        Ignore changes whose lines are all blank.
 680
 681--inter-hunk-context=<lines>::
 682        Show the context between diff hunks, up to the specified number
 683        of lines, thereby fusing hunks that are close to each other.
 684        Defaults to `diff.interHunkContext` or 0 if the config option
 685        is unset.
 686
 687-W::
 688--function-context::
 689        Show whole surrounding functions of changes.
 690
 691ifndef::git-format-patch[]
 692ifndef::git-log[]
 693--exit-code::
 694        Make the program exit with codes similar to diff(1).
 695        That is, it exits with 1 if there were differences and
 696        0 means no differences.
 697
 698--quiet::
 699        Disable all output of the program. Implies `--exit-code`.
 700endif::git-log[]
 701endif::git-format-patch[]
 702
 703--ext-diff::
 704        Allow an external diff helper to be executed. If you set an
 705        external diff driver with linkgit:gitattributes[5], you need
 706        to use this option with linkgit:git-log[1] and friends.
 707
 708--no-ext-diff::
 709        Disallow external diff drivers.
 710
 711--textconv::
 712--no-textconv::
 713        Allow (or disallow) external text conversion filters to be run
 714        when comparing binary files. See linkgit:gitattributes[5] for
 715        details. Because textconv filters are typically a one-way
 716        conversion, the resulting diff is suitable for human
 717        consumption, but cannot be applied. For this reason, textconv
 718        filters are enabled by default only for linkgit:git-diff[1] and
 719        linkgit:git-log[1], but not for linkgit:git-format-patch[1] or
 720        diff plumbing commands.
 721
 722--ignore-submodules[=<when>]::
 723        Ignore changes to submodules in the diff generation. <when> can be
 724        either "none", "untracked", "dirty" or "all", which is the default.
 725        Using "none" will consider the submodule modified when it either contains
 726        untracked or modified files or its HEAD differs from the commit recorded
 727        in the superproject and can be used to override any settings of the
 728        'ignore' option in linkgit:git-config[1] or linkgit:gitmodules[5]. When
 729        "untracked" is used submodules are not considered dirty when they only
 730        contain untracked content (but they are still scanned for modified
 731        content). Using "dirty" ignores all changes to the work tree of submodules,
 732        only changes to the commits stored in the superproject are shown (this was
 733        the behavior until 1.7.0). Using "all" hides all changes to submodules.
 734
 735--src-prefix=<prefix>::
 736        Show the given source prefix instead of "a/".
 737
 738--dst-prefix=<prefix>::
 739        Show the given destination prefix instead of "b/".
 740
 741--no-prefix::
 742        Do not show any source or destination prefix.
 743
 744--line-prefix=<prefix>::
 745        Prepend an additional prefix to every line of output.
 746
 747--ita-invisible-in-index::
 748        By default entries added by "git add -N" appear as an existing
 749        empty file in "git diff" and a new file in "git diff --cached".
 750        This option makes the entry appear as a new file in "git diff"
 751        and non-existent in "git diff --cached". This option could be
 752        reverted with `--ita-visible-in-index`. Both options are
 753        experimental and could be removed in future.
 754
 755For more detailed explanation on these common options, see also
 756linkgit:gitdiffcore[7].