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 ] <ent>{0,2} [<path>...] 12 13DESCRIPTION 14----------- 15Show changes between two ents, an ent and the working tree, an 16ent and the index file, or the index file and the working tree. 17The combination of what is compared with what is determined by 18the number of ents given to the command. 19 20* When no <ent> is given, the working tree and the index 21 file is compared, using `git-diff-files`. 22 23* When one <ent> is given, the working tree and the named 24 tree is compared, using `git-diff-index`. The option 25 `--cached` can be given to compare the index file and 26 the named tree. 27 28* When two <ent>s are given, these two trees are compared 29 using `git-diff-tree`. 30 31OPTIONS 32------- 33--diff-options:: 34 '--diff-options' are passed to the `git-diff-files`, 35 `git-diff-index`, and `git-diff-tree` commands. See the 36 documentation for these commands for description. 37 38<path>...:: 39 The <path> arguments are also passed to `git-diff-\*` 40 commands. 41 42 43EXAMPLES 44-------- 45 46Various ways to check your working tree:: 47+ 48------------ 49$ git diff <1> 50$ git diff --cached <2> 51$ git diff HEAD <3> 52 53<1> changes in the working tree since your last git-update-index. 54<2> changes between the index and your last commit; what you 55would be committing if you run "git commit" without "-a" option. 56<3> changes in the working tree since your last commit; what you 57would be committing if you run "git commit -a" 58------------ 59 60Comparing with arbitrary commits:: 61+ 62------------ 63$ git diff test <1> 64$ git diff HEAD -- ./test <2> 65$ git diff HEAD^ HEAD <3> 66 67<1> instead of using the tip of the current branch, compare with the 68tip of "test" branch. 69<2> instead of comparing with the tip of "test" branch, compare with 70the tip of the current branch, but limit the comparison to the 71file "test". 72<3> compare the version before the last commit and the last commit. 73------------ 74 75 76Limiting the diff output:: 77+ 78------------ 79$ git diff --diff-filter=MRC <1> 80$ git diff --name-status -r <2> 81$ git diff arch/i386 include/asm-i386 <3> 82 83<1> show only modification, rename and copy, but not addition 84nor deletion. 85<2> show only names and the nature of change, but not actual 86diff output. --name-status disables usual patch generation 87which in turn also disables recursive behaviour, so without -r 88you would only see the directory name if there is a change in a 89file in a subdirectory. 90<3> limit diff output to named subtrees. 91------------ 92 93Munging the diff output:: 94+ 95------------ 96$ git diff --find-copies-harder -B -C <1> 97$ git diff -R <2> 98 99<1> spend extra cycles to find renames, copies and complete 100rewrites (very expensive). 101<2> output diff in reverse. 102------------ 103 104 105Author 106------ 107Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org> 108 109Documentation 110-------------- 111Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>. 112 113GIT 114--- 115Part of the gitlink:git[7] suite 116