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' [<common diff options>] <commit>{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 If exactly two paths are given, and at least one is untracked, 27 compare the two files / directories. This behavior can be 28 forced by --no-index. 29 30'git-diff' [--options] --cached [<commit>] [--] [<path>...]:: 31 32 This form is to view the changes you staged for the next 33 commit relative to the named <commit>. Typically you 34 would want comparison with the latest commit, so if you 35 do not give <commit>, it defaults to HEAD. 36 37'git-diff' [--options] <commit> [--] [<path>...]:: 38 39 This form is to view the changes you have in your 40 working tree relative to the named <commit>. You can 41 use HEAD to compare it with the latest commit, or a 42 branch name to compare with the tip of a different 43 branch. 44 45'git-diff' [--options] <commit> <commit> [--] [<path>...]:: 46 47 This form is to view the changes between two <commit>, 48 for example, tips of two branches. 49 50Just in case if you are doing something exotic, it should be 51noted that all of the <commit> in the above description can be 52any <tree-ish>. 53 54For a more complete list of ways to spell <commit>, see 55"SPECIFYING REVISIONS" section in gitlink:git-rev-parse[1]. 56 57 58OPTIONS 59------- 60include::diff-options.txt[] 61 62<path>...:: 63 The <paths> parameters, when given, are used to limit 64 the diff to the named paths (you can give directory 65 names and get diff for all files under them). 66 67 68EXAMPLES 69-------- 70 71Various ways to check your working tree:: 72+ 73------------ 74$ git diff <1> 75$ git diff --cached <2> 76$ git diff HEAD <3> 77------------ 78+ 79<1> changes in the working tree not yet staged for the next commit. 80<2> changes between the index and your last commit; what you 81would be committing if you run "git commit" without "-a" option. 82<3> changes in the working tree since your last commit; what you 83would be committing if you run "git commit -a" 84 85Comparing with arbitrary commits:: 86+ 87------------ 88$ git diff test <1> 89$ git diff HEAD -- ./test <2> 90$ git diff HEAD^ HEAD <3> 91------------ 92+ 93<1> instead of using the tip of the current branch, compare with the 94tip of "test" branch. 95<2> instead of comparing with the tip of "test" branch, compare with 96the tip of the current branch, but limit the comparison to the 97file "test". 98<3> compare the version before the last commit and the last commit. 99 100 101Limiting the diff output:: 102+ 103------------ 104$ git diff --diff-filter=MRC <1> 105$ git diff --name-status -r <2> 106$ git diff arch/i386 include/asm-i386 <3> 107------------ 108+ 109<1> show only modification, rename and copy, but not addition 110nor deletion. 111<2> show only names and the nature of change, but not actual 112diff output. --name-status disables usual patch generation 113which in turn also disables recursive behavior, so without -r 114you would only see the directory name if there is a change in a 115file in a subdirectory. 116<3> limit diff output to named subtrees. 117 118Munging the diff output:: 119+ 120------------ 121$ git diff --find-copies-harder -B -C <1> 122$ git diff -R <2> 123------------ 124+ 125<1> spend extra cycles to find renames, copies and complete 126rewrites (very expensive). 127<2> output diff in reverse. 128 129 130Author 131------ 132Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org> 133 134Documentation 135-------------- 136Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>. 137 138GIT 139--- 140Part of the gitlink:git[7] suite 141