Documentation / diff-options.txton commit avoid segfault when reading header of malformed commits (a9c7a8a)
   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).
  26        {git-diff? This is the default.}
  27endif::git-format-patch[]
  28
  29-U<n>::
  30--unified=<n>::
  31        Generate diffs with <n> lines of context instead of
  32        the usual three.
  33ifndef::git-format-patch[]
  34        Implies `-p`.
  35endif::git-format-patch[]
  36
  37ifndef::git-format-patch[]
  38--raw::
  39        Generate the raw format.
  40        {git-diff-core? This is the default.}
  41endif::git-format-patch[]
  42
  43ifndef::git-format-patch[]
  44--patch-with-raw::
  45        Synonym for `-p --raw`.
  46endif::git-format-patch[]
  47
  48--minimal::
  49        Spend extra time to make sure the smallest possible
  50        diff is produced.
  51
  52--patience::
  53        Generate a diff using the "patience diff" algorithm.
  54
  55--histogram::
  56        Generate a diff using the "histogram diff" algorithm.
  57
  58--stat[=<width>[,<name-width>[,<count>]]]::
  59        Generate a diffstat.  You can override the default
  60        output width for 80-column terminal by `--stat=<width>`.
  61        The width of the filename part can be controlled by
  62        giving another width to it separated by a comma.
  63        By giving a third parameter `<count>`, you can limit the
  64        output to the first `<count>` lines, followed by
  65        `...` if there are more.
  66+
  67These parameters can also be set individually with `--stat-width=<width>`,
  68`--stat-name-width=<name-width>` and `--stat-count=<count>`.
  69
  70--numstat::
  71        Similar to `\--stat`, but shows number of added and
  72        deleted lines in decimal notation and pathname without
  73        abbreviation, to make it more machine friendly.  For
  74        binary files, outputs two `-` instead of saying
  75        `0 0`.
  76
  77--shortstat::
  78        Output only the last line of the `--stat` format containing total
  79        number of modified files, as well as number of added and deleted
  80        lines.
  81
  82--dirstat[=<param1,param2,...>]::
  83        Output the distribution of relative amount of changes for each
  84        sub-directory. The behavior of `--dirstat` can be customized by
  85        passing it a comma separated list of parameters.
  86        The defaults are controlled by the `diff.dirstat` configuration
  87        variable (see linkgit:git-config[1]).
  88        The following parameters are available:
  89+
  90--
  91`changes`;;
  92        Compute the dirstat numbers by counting the lines that have been
  93        removed from the source, or added to the destination. This ignores
  94        the amount of pure code movements within a file.  In other words,
  95        rearranging lines in a file is not counted as much as other changes.
  96        This is the default behavior when no parameter is given.
  97`lines`;;
  98        Compute the dirstat numbers by doing the regular line-based diff
  99        analysis, and summing the removed/added line counts. (For binary
 100        files, count 64-byte chunks instead, since binary files have no
 101        natural concept of lines). This is a more expensive `--dirstat`
 102        behavior than the `changes` behavior, but it does count rearranged
 103        lines within a file as much as other changes. The resulting output
 104        is consistent with what you get from the other `--*stat` options.
 105`files`;;
 106        Compute the dirstat numbers by counting the number of files changed.
 107        Each changed file counts equally in the dirstat analysis. This is
 108        the computationally cheapest `--dirstat` behavior, since it does
 109        not have to look at the file contents at all.
 110`cumulative`;;
 111        Count changes in a child directory for the parent directory as well.
 112        Note that when using `cumulative`, the sum of the percentages
 113        reported may exceed 100%. The default (non-cumulative) behavior can
 114        be specified with the `noncumulative` parameter.
 115<limit>;;
 116        An integer parameter specifies a cut-off percent (3% by default).
 117        Directories contributing less than this percentage of the changes
 118        are not shown in the output.
 119--
 120+
 121Example: The following will count changed files, while ignoring
 122directories with less than 10% of the total amount of changed files,
 123and accumulating child directory counts in the parent directories:
 124`--dirstat=files,10,cumulative`.
 125
 126--summary::
 127        Output a condensed summary of extended header information
 128        such as creations, renames and mode changes.
 129
 130ifndef::git-format-patch[]
 131--patch-with-stat::
 132        Synonym for `-p --stat`.
 133endif::git-format-patch[]
 134
 135ifndef::git-format-patch[]
 136
 137-z::
 138ifdef::git-log[]
 139        Separate the commits with NULs instead of with new newlines.
 140+
 141Also, when `--raw` or `--numstat` has been given, do not munge
 142pathnames and use NULs as output field terminators.
 143endif::git-log[]
 144ifndef::git-log[]
 145        When `--raw`, `--numstat`, `--name-only` or `--name-status` has been
 146        given, do not munge pathnames and use NULs as output field terminators.
 147endif::git-log[]
 148+
 149Without this option, each pathname output will have TAB, LF, double quotes,
 150and backslash characters replaced with `\t`, `\n`, `\"`, and `\\`,
 151respectively, and the pathname will be enclosed in double quotes if
 152any of those replacements occurred.
 153
 154--name-only::
 155        Show only names of changed files.
 156
 157--name-status::
 158        Show only names and status of changed files. See the description
 159        of the `--diff-filter` option on what the status letters mean.
 160
 161--submodule[=<format>]::
 162        Chose the output format for submodule differences. <format> can be one of
 163        'short' and 'log'. 'short' just shows pairs of commit names, this format
 164        is used when this option is not given. 'log' is the default value for this
 165        option and lists the commits in that commit range like the 'summary'
 166        option of linkgit:git-submodule[1] does.
 167
 168--color[=<when>]::
 169        Show colored diff.
 170        The value must be `always` (the default for `<when>`), `never`, or `auto`.
 171        The default value is `never`.
 172ifdef::git-diff[]
 173        It can be changed by the `color.ui` and `color.diff`
 174        configuration settings.
 175endif::git-diff[]
 176
 177--no-color::
 178        Turn off colored diff.
 179ifdef::git-diff[]
 180        This can be used to override configuration settings.
 181endif::git-diff[]
 182        It is the same as `--color=never`.
 183
 184--word-diff[=<mode>]::
 185        Show a word diff, using the <mode> to delimit changed words.
 186        By default, words are delimited by whitespace; see
 187        `--word-diff-regex` below.  The <mode> defaults to 'plain', and
 188        must be one of:
 189+
 190--
 191color::
 192        Highlight changed words using only colors.  Implies `--color`.
 193plain::
 194        Show words as `[-removed-]` and `{+added+}`.  Makes no
 195        attempts to escape the delimiters if they appear in the input,
 196        so the output may be ambiguous.
 197porcelain::
 198        Use a special line-based format intended for script
 199        consumption.  Added/removed/unchanged runs are printed in the
 200        usual unified diff format, starting with a `+`/`-`/` `
 201        character at the beginning of the line and extending to the
 202        end of the line.  Newlines in the input are represented by a
 203        tilde `~` on a line of its own.
 204none::
 205        Disable word diff again.
 206--
 207+
 208Note that despite the name of the first mode, color is used to
 209highlight the changed parts in all modes if enabled.
 210
 211--word-diff-regex=<regex>::
 212        Use <regex> to decide what a word is, instead of considering
 213        runs of non-whitespace to be a word.  Also implies
 214        `--word-diff` unless it was already enabled.
 215+
 216Every non-overlapping match of the
 217<regex> is considered a word.  Anything between these matches is
 218considered whitespace and ignored(!) for the purposes of finding
 219differences.  You may want to append `|[^[:space:]]` to your regular
 220expression to make sure that it matches all non-whitespace characters.
 221A match that contains a newline is silently truncated(!) at the
 222newline.
 223+
 224The regex can also be set via a diff driver or configuration option, see
 225linkgit:gitattributes[1] or linkgit:git-config[1].  Giving it explicitly
 226overrides any diff driver or configuration setting.  Diff drivers
 227override configuration settings.
 228
 229--color-words[=<regex>]::
 230        Equivalent to `--word-diff=color` plus (if a regex was
 231        specified) `--word-diff-regex=<regex>`.
 232endif::git-format-patch[]
 233
 234--no-renames::
 235        Turn off rename detection, even when the configuration
 236        file gives the default to do so.
 237
 238ifndef::git-format-patch[]
 239--check::
 240        Warn if changes introduce whitespace errors.  What are
 241        considered whitespace errors is controlled by `core.whitespace`
 242        configuration.  By default, trailing whitespaces (including
 243        lines that solely consist of whitespaces) and a space character
 244        that is immediately followed by a tab character inside the
 245        initial indent of the line are considered whitespace errors.
 246        Exits with non-zero status if problems are found. Not compatible
 247        with --exit-code.
 248endif::git-format-patch[]
 249
 250--full-index::
 251        Instead of the first handful of characters, show the full
 252        pre- and post-image blob object names on the "index"
 253        line when generating patch format output.
 254
 255--binary::
 256        In addition to `--full-index`, output a binary diff that
 257        can be applied with `git-apply`.
 258
 259--abbrev[=<n>]::
 260        Instead of showing the full 40-byte hexadecimal object
 261        name in diff-raw format output and diff-tree header
 262        lines, show only a partial prefix.  This is
 263        independent of the `--full-index` option above, which controls
 264        the diff-patch output format.  Non default number of
 265        digits can be specified with `--abbrev=<n>`.
 266
 267-B[<n>][/<m>]::
 268--break-rewrites[=[<n>][/<m>]]::
 269        Break complete rewrite changes into pairs of delete and
 270        create. This serves two purposes:
 271+
 272It affects the way a change that amounts to a total rewrite of a file
 273not as a series of deletion and insertion mixed together with a very
 274few lines that happen to match textually as the context, but as a
 275single deletion of everything old followed by a single insertion of
 276everything new, and the number `m` controls this aspect of the -B
 277option (defaults to 60%). `-B/70%` specifies that less than 30% of the
 278original should remain in the result for git to consider it a total
 279rewrite (i.e. otherwise the resulting patch will be a series of
 280deletion and insertion mixed together with context lines).
 281+
 282When used with -M, a totally-rewritten file is also considered as the
 283source of a rename (usually -M only considers a file that disappeared
 284as the source of a rename), and the number `n` controls this aspect of
 285the -B option (defaults to 50%). `-B20%` specifies that a change with
 286addition and deletion compared to 20% or more of the file's size are
 287eligible for being picked up as a possible source of a rename to
 288another file.
 289
 290-M[<n>]::
 291--find-renames[=<n>]::
 292ifndef::git-log[]
 293        Detect renames.
 294endif::git-log[]
 295ifdef::git-log[]
 296        If generating diffs, detect and report renames for each commit.
 297        For following files across renames while traversing history, see
 298        `--follow`.
 299endif::git-log[]
 300        If `n` is specified, it is a threshold on the similarity
 301        index (i.e. amount of addition/deletions compared to the
 302        file's size). For example, `-M90%` means git should consider a
 303        delete/add pair to be a rename if more than 90% of the file
 304        hasn't changed.
 305
 306-C[<n>]::
 307--find-copies[=<n>]::
 308        Detect copies as well as renames.  See also `--find-copies-harder`.
 309        If `n` is specified, it has the same meaning as for `-M<n>`.
 310
 311--find-copies-harder::
 312        For performance reasons, by default, `-C` option finds copies only
 313        if the original file of the copy was modified in the same
 314        changeset.  This flag makes the command
 315        inspect unmodified files as candidates for the source of
 316        copy.  This is a very expensive operation for large
 317        projects, so use it with caution.  Giving more than one
 318        `-C` option has the same effect.
 319
 320-D::
 321--irreversible-delete::
 322        Omit the preimage for deletes, i.e. print only the header but not
 323        the diff between the preimage and `/dev/null`. The resulting patch
 324        is not meant to be applied with `patch` nor `git apply`; this is
 325        solely for people who want to just concentrate on reviewing the
 326        text after the change. In addition, the output obviously lack
 327        enough information to apply such a patch in reverse, even manually,
 328        hence the name of the option.
 329+
 330When used together with `-B`, omit also the preimage in the deletion part
 331of a delete/create pair.
 332
 333-l<num>::
 334        The `-M` and `-C` options require O(n^2) processing time where n
 335        is the number of potential rename/copy targets.  This
 336        option prevents rename/copy detection from running if
 337        the number of rename/copy targets exceeds the specified
 338        number.
 339
 340ifndef::git-format-patch[]
 341--diff-filter=[(A|C|D|M|R|T|U|X|B)...[*]]::
 342        Select only files that are Added (`A`), Copied (`C`),
 343        Deleted (`D`), Modified (`M`), Renamed (`R`), have their
 344        type (i.e. regular file, symlink, submodule, ...) changed (`T`),
 345        are Unmerged (`U`), are
 346        Unknown (`X`), or have had their pairing Broken (`B`).
 347        Any combination of the filter characters (including none) can be used.
 348        When `*` (All-or-none) is added to the combination, all
 349        paths are selected if there is any file that matches
 350        other criteria in the comparison; if there is no file
 351        that matches other criteria, nothing is selected.
 352
 353-S<string>::
 354        Look for differences that introduce or remove an instance of
 355        <string>. Note that this is different than the string simply
 356        appearing in diff output; see the 'pickaxe' entry in
 357        linkgit:gitdiffcore[7] for more details.
 358
 359-G<regex>::
 360        Look for differences whose added or removed line matches
 361        the given <regex>.
 362
 363--pickaxe-all::
 364        When `-S` or `-G` finds a change, show all the changes in that
 365        changeset, not just the files that contain the change
 366        in <string>.
 367
 368--pickaxe-regex::
 369        Make the <string> not a plain string but an extended POSIX
 370        regex to match.
 371endif::git-format-patch[]
 372
 373-O<orderfile>::
 374        Output the patch in the order specified in the
 375        <orderfile>, which has one shell glob pattern per line.
 376
 377ifndef::git-format-patch[]
 378-R::
 379        Swap two inputs; that is, show differences from index or
 380        on-disk file to tree contents.
 381
 382--relative[=<path>]::
 383        When run from a subdirectory of the project, it can be
 384        told to exclude changes outside the directory and show
 385        pathnames relative to it with this option.  When you are
 386        not in a subdirectory (e.g. in a bare repository), you
 387        can name which subdirectory to make the output relative
 388        to by giving a <path> as an argument.
 389endif::git-format-patch[]
 390
 391-a::
 392--text::
 393        Treat all files as text.
 394
 395--ignore-space-at-eol::
 396        Ignore changes in whitespace at EOL.
 397
 398-b::
 399--ignore-space-change::
 400        Ignore changes in amount of whitespace.  This ignores whitespace
 401        at line end, and considers all other sequences of one or
 402        more whitespace characters to be equivalent.
 403
 404-w::
 405--ignore-all-space::
 406        Ignore whitespace when comparing lines.  This ignores
 407        differences even if one line has whitespace where the other
 408        line has none.
 409
 410--inter-hunk-context=<lines>::
 411        Show the context between diff hunks, up to the specified number
 412        of lines, thereby fusing hunks that are close to each other.
 413
 414-W::
 415--function-context::
 416        Show whole surrounding functions of changes.
 417
 418ifndef::git-format-patch[]
 419ifndef::git-log[]
 420--exit-code::
 421        Make the program exit with codes similar to diff(1).
 422        That is, it exits with 1 if there were differences and
 423        0 means no differences.
 424
 425--quiet::
 426        Disable all output of the program. Implies `--exit-code`.
 427endif::git-log[]
 428endif::git-format-patch[]
 429
 430--ext-diff::
 431        Allow an external diff helper to be executed. If you set an
 432        external diff driver with linkgit:gitattributes[5], you need
 433        to use this option with linkgit:git-log[1] and friends.
 434
 435--no-ext-diff::
 436        Disallow external diff drivers.
 437
 438--textconv::
 439--no-textconv::
 440        Allow (or disallow) external text conversion filters to be run
 441        when comparing binary files. See linkgit:gitattributes[5] for
 442        details. Because textconv filters are typically a one-way
 443        conversion, the resulting diff is suitable for human
 444        consumption, but cannot be applied. For this reason, textconv
 445        filters are enabled by default only for linkgit:git-diff[1] and
 446        linkgit:git-log[1], but not for linkgit:git-format-patch[1] or
 447        diff plumbing commands.
 448
 449--ignore-submodules[=<when>]::
 450        Ignore changes to submodules in the diff generation. <when> can be
 451        either "none", "untracked", "dirty" or "all", which is the default
 452        Using "none" will consider the submodule modified when it either contains
 453        untracked or modified files or its HEAD differs from the commit recorded
 454        in the superproject and can be used to override any settings of the
 455        'ignore' option in linkgit:git-config[1] or linkgit:gitmodules[5]. When
 456        "untracked" is used submodules are not considered dirty when they only
 457        contain untracked content (but they are still scanned for modified
 458        content). Using "dirty" ignores all changes to the work tree of submodules,
 459        only changes to the commits stored in the superproject are shown (this was
 460        the behavior until 1.7.0). Using "all" hides all changes to submodules.
 461
 462--src-prefix=<prefix>::
 463        Show the given source prefix instead of "a/".
 464
 465--dst-prefix=<prefix>::
 466        Show the given destination prefix instead of "b/".
 467
 468--no-prefix::
 469        Do not show any source or destination prefix.
 470
 471For more detailed explanation on these common options, see also
 472linkgit:gitdiffcore[7].