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 linkgit:git-add[1]. 25+ 26If exactly two paths are given, and at least one is untracked, 27compare the two files / directories. This behavior can be 28forced 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 --staged is a synonym of --cached. 37 38'git diff' [--options] <commit> [--] [<path>...]:: 39 40 This form is to view the changes you have in your 41 working tree relative to the named <commit>. You can 42 use HEAD to compare it with the latest commit, or a 43 branch name to compare with the tip of a different 44 branch. 45 46'git diff' [--options] <commit> <commit> [--] [<path>...]:: 47 48 This is to view the changes between two arbitrary 49 <commit>. 50 51'git diff' [--options] <commit>..<commit> [--] [<path>...]:: 52 53 This is synonymous to the previous form. If <commit> on 54 one side is omitted, it will have the same effect as 55 using HEAD instead. 56 57'git diff' [--options] <commit>\...<commit> [--] [<path>...]:: 58 59 This form is to view the changes on the branch containing 60 and up to the second <commit>, starting at a common ancestor 61 of both <commit>. "git diff A\...B" is equivalent to 62 "git diff $(git-merge-base A B) B". You can omit any one 63 of <commit>, which has the same effect as using HEAD instead. 64 65Just in case if you are doing something exotic, it should be 66noted that all of the <commit> in the above description, except 67for the last two forms that use ".." notations, can be any 68<tree-ish>. 69 70For a more complete list of ways to spell <commit>, see 71"SPECIFYING REVISIONS" section in linkgit:git-rev-parse[1]. 72However, "diff" is about comparing two _endpoints_, not ranges, 73and the range notations ("<commit>..<commit>" and 74"<commit>\...<commit>") do not mean a range as defined in the 75"SPECIFYING RANGES" section in linkgit:git-rev-parse[1]. 76 77OPTIONS 78------- 79:git-diff: 1 80include::diff-options.txt[] 81 82<path>...:: 83 The <paths> parameters, when given, are used to limit 84 the diff to the named paths (you can give directory 85 names and get diff for all files under them). 86 87 88include::diff-format.txt[] 89 90EXAMPLES 91-------- 92 93Various ways to check your working tree:: 94+ 95------------ 96$ git diff <1> 97$ git diff --cached <2> 98$ git diff HEAD <3> 99------------ 100+ 101<1> Changes in the working tree not yet staged for the next commit. 102<2> Changes between the index and your last commit; what you 103would be committing if you run "git commit" without "-a" option. 104<3> Changes in the working tree since your last commit; what you 105would be committing if you run "git commit -a" 106 107Comparing with arbitrary commits:: 108+ 109------------ 110$ git diff test <1> 111$ git diff HEAD -- ./test <2> 112$ git diff HEAD^ HEAD <3> 113------------ 114+ 115<1> Instead of using the tip of the current branch, compare with the 116tip of "test" branch. 117<2> Instead of comparing with the tip of "test" branch, compare with 118the tip of the current branch, but limit the comparison to the 119file "test". 120<3> Compare the version before the last commit and the last commit. 121 122Comparing branches:: 123+ 124------------ 125$ git diff topic master <1> 126$ git diff topic..master <2> 127$ git diff topic...master <3> 128------------ 129+ 130<1> Changes between the tips of the topic and the master branches. 131<2> Same as above. 132<3> Changes that occurred on the master branch since when the topic 133branch was started off it. 134 135Limiting the diff output:: 136+ 137------------ 138$ git diff --diff-filter=MRC <1> 139$ git diff --name-status <2> 140$ git diff arch/i386 include/asm-i386 <3> 141------------ 142+ 143<1> Show only modification, rename and copy, but not addition 144nor deletion. 145<2> Show only names and the nature of change, but not actual 146diff output. 147<3> Limit diff output to named subtrees. 148 149Munging the diff output:: 150+ 151------------ 152$ git diff --find-copies-harder -B -C <1> 153$ git diff -R <2> 154------------ 155+ 156<1> Spend extra cycles to find renames, copies and complete 157rewrites (very expensive). 158<2> Output diff in reverse. 159 160 161Author 162------ 163Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org> 164 165Documentation 166-------------- 167Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>. 168 169GIT 170--- 171Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite