Documentation / diff-options.txton commit config.c: rename git_config_maybe_bool_text and export it as git_parse_maybe_bool (9a549d4)
   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[]
  29endif::git-format-patch[]
  30
  31-s::
  32--no-patch::
  33        Suppress diff output. Useful for commands like `git show` that
  34        show the patch by default, or to cancel the effect of `--patch`.
  35
  36-U<n>::
  37--unified=<n>::
  38        Generate diffs with <n> lines of context instead of
  39        the usual three.
  40ifndef::git-format-patch[]
  41        Implies `-p`.
  42endif::git-format-patch[]
  43
  44ifndef::git-format-patch[]
  45--raw::
  46ifndef::git-log[]
  47        Generate the diff in raw format.
  48ifdef::git-diff-core[]
  49        This is the default.
  50endif::git-diff-core[]
  51endif::git-log[]
  52ifdef::git-log[]
  53        For each commit, show a summary of changes using the raw diff
  54        format. See the "RAW OUTPUT FORMAT" section of
  55        linkgit:git-diff[1]. This is different from showing the log
  56        itself in raw format, which you can achieve with
  57        `--format=raw`.
  58endif::git-log[]
  59endif::git-format-patch[]
  60
  61ifndef::git-format-patch[]
  62--patch-with-raw::
  63        Synonym for `-p --raw`.
  64endif::git-format-patch[]
  65
  66--minimal::
  67        Spend extra time to make sure the smallest possible
  68        diff is produced.
  69
  70--patience::
  71        Generate a diff using the "patience diff" algorithm.
  72
  73--histogram::
  74        Generate a diff using the "histogram diff" algorithm.
  75
  76--diff-algorithm={patience|minimal|histogram|myers}::
  77        Choose a diff algorithm. The variants are as follows:
  78+
  79--
  80`default`, `myers`;;
  81        The basic greedy diff algorithm. Currently, this is the default.
  82`minimal`;;
  83        Spend extra time to make sure the smallest possible diff is
  84        produced.
  85`patience`;;
  86        Use "patience diff" algorithm when generating patches.
  87`histogram`;;
  88        This algorithm extends the patience algorithm to "support
  89        low-occurrence common elements".
  90--
  91+
  92For instance, if you configured diff.algorithm variable to a
  93non-default value and want to use the default one, then you
  94have to use `--diff-algorithm=default` option.
  95
  96--stat[=<width>[,<name-width>[,<count>]]]::
  97        Generate a diffstat. By default, as much space as necessary
  98        will be used for the filename part, and the rest for the graph
  99        part. Maximum width defaults to terminal width, or 80 columns
 100        if not connected to a terminal, and can be overridden by
 101        `<width>`. The width of the filename part can be limited by
 102        giving another width `<name-width>` after a comma. The width
 103        of the graph part can be limited by using
 104        `--stat-graph-width=<width>` (affects all commands generating
 105        a stat graph) or by setting `diff.statGraphWidth=<width>`
 106        (does not affect `git format-patch`).
 107        By giving a third parameter `<count>`, you can limit the
 108        output to the first `<count>` lines, followed by `...` if
 109        there are more.
 110+
 111These parameters can also be set individually with `--stat-width=<width>`,
 112`--stat-name-width=<name-width>` and `--stat-count=<count>`.
 113
 114--numstat::
 115        Similar to `--stat`, but shows number of added and
 116        deleted lines in decimal notation and pathname without
 117        abbreviation, to make it more machine friendly.  For
 118        binary files, outputs two `-` instead of saying
 119        `0 0`.
 120
 121--shortstat::
 122        Output only the last line of the `--stat` format containing total
 123        number of modified files, as well as number of added and deleted
 124        lines.
 125
 126--dirstat[=<param1,param2,...>]::
 127        Output the distribution of relative amount of changes for each
 128        sub-directory. The behavior of `--dirstat` can be customized by
 129        passing it a comma separated list of parameters.
 130        The defaults are controlled by the `diff.dirstat` configuration
 131        variable (see linkgit:git-config[1]).
 132        The following parameters are available:
 133+
 134--
 135`changes`;;
 136        Compute the dirstat numbers by counting the lines that have been
 137        removed from the source, or added to the destination. This ignores
 138        the amount of pure code movements within a file.  In other words,
 139        rearranging lines in a file is not counted as much as other changes.
 140        This is the default behavior when no parameter is given.
 141`lines`;;
 142        Compute the dirstat numbers by doing the regular line-based diff
 143        analysis, and summing the removed/added line counts. (For binary
 144        files, count 64-byte chunks instead, since binary files have no
 145        natural concept of lines). This is a more expensive `--dirstat`
 146        behavior than the `changes` behavior, but it does count rearranged
 147        lines within a file as much as other changes. The resulting output
 148        is consistent with what you get from the other `--*stat` options.
 149`files`;;
 150        Compute the dirstat numbers by counting the number of files changed.
 151        Each changed file counts equally in the dirstat analysis. This is
 152        the computationally cheapest `--dirstat` behavior, since it does
 153        not have to look at the file contents at all.
 154`cumulative`;;
 155        Count changes in a child directory for the parent directory as well.
 156        Note that when using `cumulative`, the sum of the percentages
 157        reported may exceed 100%. The default (non-cumulative) behavior can
 158        be specified with the `noncumulative` parameter.
 159<limit>;;
 160        An integer parameter specifies a cut-off percent (3% by default).
 161        Directories contributing less than this percentage of the changes
 162        are not shown in the output.
 163--
 164+
 165Example: The following will count changed files, while ignoring
 166directories with less than 10% of the total amount of changed files,
 167and accumulating child directory counts in the parent directories:
 168`--dirstat=files,10,cumulative`.
 169
 170--summary::
 171        Output a condensed summary of extended header information
 172        such as creations, renames and mode changes.
 173
 174ifndef::git-format-patch[]
 175--patch-with-stat::
 176        Synonym for `-p --stat`.
 177endif::git-format-patch[]
 178
 179ifndef::git-format-patch[]
 180
 181-z::
 182ifdef::git-log[]
 183        Separate the commits with NULs instead of with new newlines.
 184+
 185Also, when `--raw` or `--numstat` has been given, do not munge
 186pathnames and use NULs as output field terminators.
 187endif::git-log[]
 188ifndef::git-log[]
 189        When `--raw`, `--numstat`, `--name-only` or `--name-status` has been
 190        given, do not munge pathnames and use NULs as output field terminators.
 191endif::git-log[]
 192+
 193Without this option, each pathname output will have TAB, LF, double quotes,
 194and backslash characters replaced with `\t`, `\n`, `\"`, and `\\`,
 195respectively, and the pathname will be enclosed in double quotes if
 196any of those replacements occurred.
 197
 198--name-only::
 199        Show only names of changed files.
 200
 201--name-status::
 202        Show only names and status of changed files. See the description
 203        of the `--diff-filter` option on what the status letters mean.
 204
 205--submodule[=<format>]::
 206        Specify how differences in submodules are shown.  When `--submodule`
 207        or `--submodule=log` is given, the 'log' format is used.  This format lists
 208        the commits in the range like linkgit:git-submodule[1] `summary` does.
 209        Omitting the `--submodule` option or specifying `--submodule=short`,
 210        uses the 'short' format. This format just shows the names of the commits
 211        at the beginning and end of the range.  Can be tweaked via the
 212        `diff.submodule` configuration variable.
 213
 214--color[=<when>]::
 215        Show colored diff.
 216        `--color` (i.e. without '=<when>') is the same as `--color=always`.
 217        '<when>' can be one of `always`, `never`, or `auto`.
 218ifdef::git-diff[]
 219        It can be changed by the `color.ui` and `color.diff`
 220        configuration settings.
 221endif::git-diff[]
 222
 223--no-color::
 224        Turn off colored diff.
 225ifdef::git-diff[]
 226        This can be used to override configuration settings.
 227endif::git-diff[]
 228        It is the same as `--color=never`.
 229
 230--word-diff[=<mode>]::
 231        Show a word diff, using the <mode> to delimit changed words.
 232        By default, words are delimited by whitespace; see
 233        `--word-diff-regex` below.  The <mode> defaults to 'plain', and
 234        must be one of:
 235+
 236--
 237color::
 238        Highlight changed words using only colors.  Implies `--color`.
 239plain::
 240        Show words as `[-removed-]` and `{+added+}`.  Makes no
 241        attempts to escape the delimiters if they appear in the input,
 242        so the output may be ambiguous.
 243porcelain::
 244        Use a special line-based format intended for script
 245        consumption.  Added/removed/unchanged runs are printed in the
 246        usual unified diff format, starting with a `+`/`-`/` `
 247        character at the beginning of the line and extending to the
 248        end of the line.  Newlines in the input are represented by a
 249        tilde `~` on a line of its own.
 250none::
 251        Disable word diff again.
 252--
 253+
 254Note that despite the name of the first mode, color is used to
 255highlight the changed parts in all modes if enabled.
 256
 257--word-diff-regex=<regex>::
 258        Use <regex> to decide what a word is, instead of considering
 259        runs of non-whitespace to be a word.  Also implies
 260        `--word-diff` unless it was already enabled.
 261+
 262Every non-overlapping match of the
 263<regex> is considered a word.  Anything between these matches is
 264considered whitespace and ignored(!) for the purposes of finding
 265differences.  You may want to append `|[^[:space:]]` to your regular
 266expression to make sure that it matches all non-whitespace characters.
 267A match that contains a newline is silently truncated(!) at the
 268newline.
 269+
 270The regex can also be set via a diff driver or configuration option, see
 271linkgit:gitattributes[1] or linkgit:git-config[1].  Giving it explicitly
 272overrides any diff driver or configuration setting.  Diff drivers
 273override configuration settings.
 274
 275--color-words[=<regex>]::
 276        Equivalent to `--word-diff=color` plus (if a regex was
 277        specified) `--word-diff-regex=<regex>`.
 278endif::git-format-patch[]
 279
 280--no-renames::
 281        Turn off rename detection, even when the configuration
 282        file gives the default to do so.
 283
 284ifndef::git-format-patch[]
 285--check::
 286        Warn if changes introduce whitespace errors.  What are
 287        considered whitespace errors is controlled by `core.whitespace`
 288        configuration.  By default, trailing whitespaces (including
 289        lines that solely consist of whitespaces) and a space character
 290        that is immediately followed by a tab character inside the
 291        initial indent of the line are considered whitespace errors.
 292        Exits with non-zero status if problems are found. Not compatible
 293        with --exit-code.
 294endif::git-format-patch[]
 295
 296--full-index::
 297        Instead of the first handful of characters, show the full
 298        pre- and post-image blob object names on the "index"
 299        line when generating patch format output.
 300
 301--binary::
 302        In addition to `--full-index`, output a binary diff that
 303        can be applied with `git-apply`.
 304
 305--abbrev[=<n>]::
 306        Instead of showing the full 40-byte hexadecimal object
 307        name in diff-raw format output and diff-tree header
 308        lines, show only a partial prefix.  This is
 309        independent of the `--full-index` option above, which controls
 310        the diff-patch output format.  Non default number of
 311        digits can be specified with `--abbrev=<n>`.
 312
 313-B[<n>][/<m>]::
 314--break-rewrites[=[<n>][/<m>]]::
 315        Break complete rewrite changes into pairs of delete and
 316        create. This serves two purposes:
 317+
 318It affects the way a change that amounts to a total rewrite of a file
 319not as a series of deletion and insertion mixed together with a very
 320few lines that happen to match textually as the context, but as a
 321single deletion of everything old followed by a single insertion of
 322everything new, and the number `m` controls this aspect of the -B
 323option (defaults to 60%). `-B/70%` specifies that less than 30% of the
 324original should remain in the result for Git to consider it a total
 325rewrite (i.e. otherwise the resulting patch will be a series of
 326deletion and insertion mixed together with context lines).
 327+
 328When used with -M, a totally-rewritten file is also considered as the
 329source of a rename (usually -M only considers a file that disappeared
 330as the source of a rename), and the number `n` controls this aspect of
 331the -B option (defaults to 50%). `-B20%` specifies that a change with
 332addition and deletion compared to 20% or more of the file's size are
 333eligible for being picked up as a possible source of a rename to
 334another file.
 335
 336-M[<n>]::
 337--find-renames[=<n>]::
 338ifndef::git-log[]
 339        Detect renames.
 340endif::git-log[]
 341ifdef::git-log[]
 342        If generating diffs, detect and report renames for each commit.
 343        For following files across renames while traversing history, see
 344        `--follow`.
 345endif::git-log[]
 346        If `n` is specified, it is a threshold on the similarity
 347        index (i.e. amount of addition/deletions compared to the
 348        file's size). For example, `-M90%` means Git should consider a
 349        delete/add pair to be a rename if more than 90% of the file
 350        hasn't changed.  Without a `%` sign, the number is to be read as
 351        a fraction, with a decimal point before it.  I.e., `-M5` becomes
 352        0.5, and is thus the same as `-M50%`.  Similarly, `-M05` is
 353        the same as `-M5%`.  To limit detection to exact renames, use
 354        `-M100%`.  The default similarity index is 50%.
 355
 356-C[<n>]::
 357--find-copies[=<n>]::
 358        Detect copies as well as renames.  See also `--find-copies-harder`.
 359        If `n` is specified, it has the same meaning as for `-M<n>`.
 360
 361--find-copies-harder::
 362        For performance reasons, by default, `-C` option finds copies only
 363        if the original file of the copy was modified in the same
 364        changeset.  This flag makes the command
 365        inspect unmodified files as candidates for the source of
 366        copy.  This is a very expensive operation for large
 367        projects, so use it with caution.  Giving more than one
 368        `-C` option has the same effect.
 369
 370-D::
 371--irreversible-delete::
 372        Omit the preimage for deletes, i.e. print only the header but not
 373        the diff between the preimage and `/dev/null`. The resulting patch
 374        is not meant to be applied with `patch` or `git apply`; this is
 375        solely for people who want to just concentrate on reviewing the
 376        text after the change. In addition, the output obviously lack
 377        enough information to apply such a patch in reverse, even manually,
 378        hence the name of the option.
 379+
 380When used together with `-B`, omit also the preimage in the deletion part
 381of a delete/create pair.
 382
 383-l<num>::
 384        The `-M` and `-C` options require O(n^2) processing time where n
 385        is the number of potential rename/copy targets.  This
 386        option prevents rename/copy detection from running if
 387        the number of rename/copy targets exceeds the specified
 388        number.
 389
 390ifndef::git-format-patch[]
 391--diff-filter=[(A|C|D|M|R|T|U|X|B)...[*]]::
 392        Select only files that are Added (`A`), Copied (`C`),
 393        Deleted (`D`), Modified (`M`), Renamed (`R`), have their
 394        type (i.e. regular file, symlink, submodule, ...) changed (`T`),
 395        are Unmerged (`U`), are
 396        Unknown (`X`), or have had their pairing Broken (`B`).
 397        Any combination of the filter characters (including none) can be used.
 398        When `*` (All-or-none) is added to the combination, all
 399        paths are selected if there is any file that matches
 400        other criteria in the comparison; if there is no file
 401        that matches other criteria, nothing is selected.
 402
 403-S<string>::
 404        Look for differences that change the number of occurrences of
 405        the specified string (i.e. addition/deletion) in a file.
 406        Intended for the scripter's use.
 407+
 408It is useful when you're looking for an exact block of code (like a
 409struct), and want to know the history of that block since it first
 410came into being: use the feature iteratively to feed the interesting
 411block in the preimage back into `-S`, and keep going until you get the
 412very first version of the block.
 413
 414-G<regex>::
 415        Look for differences whose patch text contains added/removed
 416        lines that match <regex>.
 417+
 418To illustrate the difference between `-S<regex> --pickaxe-regex` and
 419`-G<regex>`, consider a commit with the following diff in the same
 420file:
 421+
 422----
 423+    return !regexec(regexp, two->ptr, 1, &regmatch, 0);
 424...
 425-    hit = !regexec(regexp, mf2.ptr, 1, &regmatch, 0);
 426----
 427+
 428While `git log -G"regexec\(regexp"` will show this commit, `git log
 429-S"regexec\(regexp" --pickaxe-regex` will not (because the number of
 430occurrences of that string did not change).
 431+
 432See the 'pickaxe' entry in linkgit:gitdiffcore[7] for more
 433information.
 434
 435--pickaxe-all::
 436        When `-S` or `-G` finds a change, show all the changes in that
 437        changeset, not just the files that contain the change
 438        in <string>.
 439
 440--pickaxe-regex::
 441        Treat the <string> given to `-S` as an extended POSIX regular
 442        expression to match.
 443endif::git-format-patch[]
 444
 445-O<orderfile>::
 446        Output the patch in the order specified in the
 447        <orderfile>, which has one shell glob pattern per line.
 448        This overrides the `diff.orderFile` configuration variable
 449        (see linkgit:git-config[1]).  To cancel `diff.orderFile`,
 450        use `-O/dev/null`.
 451
 452ifndef::git-format-patch[]
 453-R::
 454        Swap two inputs; that is, show differences from index or
 455        on-disk file to tree contents.
 456
 457--relative[=<path>]::
 458        When run from a subdirectory of the project, it can be
 459        told to exclude changes outside the directory and show
 460        pathnames relative to it with this option.  When you are
 461        not in a subdirectory (e.g. in a bare repository), you
 462        can name which subdirectory to make the output relative
 463        to by giving a <path> as an argument.
 464endif::git-format-patch[]
 465
 466-a::
 467--text::
 468        Treat all files as text.
 469
 470--ignore-space-at-eol::
 471        Ignore changes in whitespace at EOL.
 472
 473-b::
 474--ignore-space-change::
 475        Ignore changes in amount of whitespace.  This ignores whitespace
 476        at line end, and considers all other sequences of one or
 477        more whitespace characters to be equivalent.
 478
 479-w::
 480--ignore-all-space::
 481        Ignore whitespace when comparing lines.  This ignores
 482        differences even if one line has whitespace where the other
 483        line has none.
 484
 485--ignore-blank-lines::
 486        Ignore changes whose lines are all blank.
 487
 488--inter-hunk-context=<lines>::
 489        Show the context between diff hunks, up to the specified number
 490        of lines, thereby fusing hunks that are close to each other.
 491
 492-W::
 493--function-context::
 494        Show whole surrounding functions of changes.
 495
 496ifndef::git-format-patch[]
 497ifndef::git-log[]
 498--exit-code::
 499        Make the program exit with codes similar to diff(1).
 500        That is, it exits with 1 if there were differences and
 501        0 means no differences.
 502
 503--quiet::
 504        Disable all output of the program. Implies `--exit-code`.
 505endif::git-log[]
 506endif::git-format-patch[]
 507
 508--ext-diff::
 509        Allow an external diff helper to be executed. If you set an
 510        external diff driver with linkgit:gitattributes[5], you need
 511        to use this option with linkgit:git-log[1] and friends.
 512
 513--no-ext-diff::
 514        Disallow external diff drivers.
 515
 516--textconv::
 517--no-textconv::
 518        Allow (or disallow) external text conversion filters to be run
 519        when comparing binary files. See linkgit:gitattributes[5] for
 520        details. Because textconv filters are typically a one-way
 521        conversion, the resulting diff is suitable for human
 522        consumption, but cannot be applied. For this reason, textconv
 523        filters are enabled by default only for linkgit:git-diff[1] and
 524        linkgit:git-log[1], but not for linkgit:git-format-patch[1] or
 525        diff plumbing commands.
 526
 527--ignore-submodules[=<when>]::
 528        Ignore changes to submodules in the diff generation. <when> can be
 529        either "none", "untracked", "dirty" or "all", which is the default.
 530        Using "none" will consider the submodule modified when it either contains
 531        untracked or modified files or its HEAD differs from the commit recorded
 532        in the superproject and can be used to override any settings of the
 533        'ignore' option in linkgit:git-config[1] or linkgit:gitmodules[5]. When
 534        "untracked" is used submodules are not considered dirty when they only
 535        contain untracked content (but they are still scanned for modified
 536        content). Using "dirty" ignores all changes to the work tree of submodules,
 537        only changes to the commits stored in the superproject are shown (this was
 538        the behavior until 1.7.0). Using "all" hides all changes to submodules.
 539
 540--src-prefix=<prefix>::
 541        Show the given source prefix instead of "a/".
 542
 543--dst-prefix=<prefix>::
 544        Show the given destination prefix instead of "b/".
 545
 546--no-prefix::
 547        Do not show any source or destination prefix.
 548
 549For more detailed explanation on these common options, see also
 550linkgit:gitdiffcore[7].