Documentation / git-diff.txton commit Align section headers of 'git status' to new 'git add'. (82dca84)
   1git-diff(1)
   2===========
   3
   4NAME
   5----
   6git-diff - Show changes between commits, commit and working tree, etc
   7
   8
   9SYNOPSIS
  10--------
  11'git-diff' [ --diff-options ] <tree-ish>{0,2} [--] [<path>...]
  12
  13DESCRIPTION
  14-----------
  15Show changes between two trees, a tree and the working tree, a
  16tree and the index file, or the index file and the working tree.
  17
  18'git-diff' [--options] [--] [<path>...]::
  19
  20        This form is to view the changes you made relative to
  21        the index (staging area for the next commit).  In other
  22        words, the differences are what you _could_ tell git to
  23        further add to the index but you still haven't.  You can
  24        stage these changes by using gitlink:git-add[1].
  25
  26'git-diff' [--options] --cached [<commit>] [--] [<path>...]::
  27
  28        This form is to view the changes you staged for the next
  29        commit relative to the named <tree-ish>.  Typically you
  30        would want comparison with the latest commit, so if you
  31        do not give <commit>, it defaults to HEAD.
  32
  33'git-diff' [--options] <commit> [--] [<path>...]::
  34
  35        This form is to view the changes you have in your
  36        working tree relative to the named <commit>.  You can
  37        use HEAD to compare it with the latest commit, or a
  38        branch name to compare with the tip of a different
  39        branch.
  40
  41'git-diff' [--options] <commit> <commit> [--] [<path>...]::
  42
  43        This form is to view the changes between two <commit>,
  44        for example, tips of two branches.
  45
  46Just in case if you are doing something exotic, it should be
  47noted that all of the <commit> in the above description can be
  48any <tree-ish>.
  49
  50
  51OPTIONS
  52-------
  53include::diff-options.txt[]
  54
  55<path>...::
  56        The <paths> parameters, when given, are used to limit
  57        the diff to the named paths (you can give directory
  58        names and get diff for all files under them).
  59
  60
  61EXAMPLES
  62--------
  63
  64Various ways to check your working tree::
  65+
  66------------
  67$ git diff            <1>
  68$ git diff --cached   <2>
  69$ git diff HEAD       <3>
  70------------
  71+
  72<1> changes in the working tree not yet staged for the next commit.
  73<2> changes between the index and your last commit; what you
  74would be committing if you run "git commit" without "-a" option.
  75<3> changes in the working tree since your last commit; what you
  76would be committing if you run "git commit -a"
  77
  78Comparing with arbitrary commits::
  79+
  80------------
  81$ git diff test            <1>
  82$ git diff HEAD -- ./test  <2>
  83$ git diff HEAD^ HEAD      <3>
  84------------
  85+
  86<1> instead of using the tip of the current branch, compare with the
  87tip of "test" branch.
  88<2> instead of comparing with the tip of "test" branch, compare with
  89the tip of the current branch, but limit the comparison to the
  90file "test".
  91<3> compare the version before the last commit and the last commit.
  92
  93
  94Limiting the diff output::
  95+
  96------------
  97$ git diff --diff-filter=MRC            <1>
  98$ git diff --name-status -r             <2>
  99$ git diff arch/i386 include/asm-i386   <3>
 100------------
 101+
 102<1> show only modification, rename and copy, but not addition
 103nor deletion.
 104<2> show only names and the nature of change, but not actual
 105diff output.  --name-status disables usual patch generation
 106which in turn also disables recursive behavior, so without -r
 107you would only see the directory name if there is a change in a
 108file in a subdirectory.
 109<3> limit diff output to named subtrees.
 110
 111Munging the diff output::
 112+
 113------------
 114$ git diff --find-copies-harder -B -C  <1>
 115$ git diff -R                          <2>
 116------------
 117+
 118<1> spend extra cycles to find renames, copies and complete
 119rewrites (very expensive).
 120<2> output diff in reverse.
 121
 122
 123Author
 124------
 125Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
 126
 127Documentation
 128--------------
 129Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.
 130
 131GIT
 132---
 133Part of the gitlink:git[7] suite
 134