Documentation / diff-options.txton commit Merge branch 'jk/maint-status-keep-index-timestamp' (bff6e86)
   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--patience::
  49        Generate a diff using the "patience diff" algorithm.
  50
  51--stat[=width[,name-width]]::
  52        Generate a diffstat.  You can override the default
  53        output width for 80-column terminal by `--stat=width`.
  54        The width of the filename part can be controlled by
  55        giving another width to it separated by a comma.
  56
  57--numstat::
  58        Similar to `\--stat`, but shows number of added and
  59        deleted lines in decimal notation and pathname without
  60        abbreviation, to make it more machine friendly.  For
  61        binary files, outputs two `-` instead of saying
  62        `0 0`.
  63
  64--shortstat::
  65        Output only the last line of the `--stat` format containing total
  66        number of modified files, as well as number of added and deleted
  67        lines.
  68
  69--dirstat[=limit]::
  70        Output the distribution of relative amount of changes (number of lines added or
  71        removed) for each sub-directory. Directories with changes below
  72        a cut-off percent (3% by default) are not shown. The cut-off percent
  73        can be set with `--dirstat=limit`. Changes in a child directory is not
  74        counted for the parent directory, unless `--cumulative` is used.
  75
  76--dirstat-by-file[=limit]::
  77        Same as `--dirstat`, but counts changed files instead of lines.
  78
  79--summary::
  80        Output a condensed summary of extended header information
  81        such as creations, renames and mode changes.
  82
  83ifndef::git-format-patch[]
  84--patch-with-stat::
  85        Synonym for `-p --stat`.
  86endif::git-format-patch[]
  87
  88ifndef::git-format-patch[]
  89
  90-z::
  91ifdef::git-log[]
  92        Separate the commits with NULs instead of with new newlines.
  93+
  94Also, when `--raw` or `--numstat` has been given, do not munge
  95pathnames and use NULs as output field terminators.
  96endif::git-log[]
  97ifndef::git-log[]
  98        When `--raw`, `--numstat`, `--name-only` or `--name-status` has been
  99        given, do not munge pathnames and use NULs as output field terminators.
 100endif::git-log[]
 101+
 102Without this option, each pathname output will have TAB, LF, double quotes,
 103and backslash characters replaced with `\t`, `\n`, `\"`, and `\\`,
 104respectively, and the pathname will be enclosed in double quotes if
 105any of those replacements occurred.
 106
 107--name-only::
 108        Show only names of changed files.
 109
 110--name-status::
 111        Show only names and status of changed files. See the description
 112        of the `--diff-filter` option on what the status letters mean.
 113
 114--submodule[=<format>]::
 115        Chose the output format for submodule differences. <format> can be one of
 116        'short' and 'log'. 'short' just shows pairs of commit names, this format
 117        is used when this option is not given. 'log' is the default value for this
 118        option and lists the commits in that commit range like the 'summary'
 119        option of linkgit:git-submodule[1] does.
 120
 121--color[=<when>]::
 122        Show colored diff.
 123        The value must be always (the default), never, or auto.
 124
 125--no-color::
 126        Turn off colored diff, even when the configuration file
 127        gives the default to color output.
 128        Same as `--color=never`.
 129
 130--word-diff[=<mode>]::
 131        Show a word diff, using the <mode> to delimit changed words.
 132        By default, words are delimited by whitespace; see
 133        `--word-diff-regex` below.  The <mode> defaults to 'plain', and
 134        must be one of:
 135+
 136--
 137color::
 138        Highlight changed words using only colors.  Implies `--color`.
 139plain::
 140        Show words as `[-removed-]` and `{+added+}`.  Makes no
 141        attempts to escape the delimiters if they appear in the input,
 142        so the output may be ambiguous.
 143porcelain::
 144        Use a special line-based format intended for script
 145        consumption.  Added/removed/unchanged runs are printed in the
 146        usual unified diff format, starting with a `+`/`-`/` `
 147        character at the beginning of the line and extending to the
 148        end of the line.  Newlines in the input are represented by a
 149        tilde `~` on a line of its own.
 150none::
 151        Disable word diff again.
 152--
 153+
 154Note that despite the name of the first mode, color is used to
 155highlight the changed parts in all modes if enabled.
 156
 157--word-diff-regex=<regex>::
 158        Use <regex> to decide what a word is, instead of considering
 159        runs of non-whitespace to be a word.  Also implies
 160        `--word-diff` unless it was already enabled.
 161+
 162Every non-overlapping match of the
 163<regex> is considered a word.  Anything between these matches is
 164considered whitespace and ignored(!) for the purposes of finding
 165differences.  You may want to append `|[^[:space:]]` to your regular
 166expression to make sure that it matches all non-whitespace characters.
 167A match that contains a newline is silently truncated(!) at the
 168newline.
 169+
 170The regex can also be set via a diff driver or configuration option, see
 171linkgit:gitattributes[1] or linkgit:git-config[1].  Giving it explicitly
 172overrides any diff driver or configuration setting.  Diff drivers
 173override configuration settings.
 174
 175--color-words[=<regex>]::
 176        Equivalent to `--word-diff=color` plus (if a regex was
 177        specified) `--word-diff-regex=<regex>`.
 178endif::git-format-patch[]
 179
 180--no-renames::
 181        Turn off rename detection, even when the configuration
 182        file gives the default to do so.
 183
 184ifndef::git-format-patch[]
 185--check::
 186        Warn if changes introduce trailing whitespace
 187        or an indent that uses a space before a tab. Exits with
 188        non-zero status if problems are found. Not compatible with
 189        --exit-code.
 190endif::git-format-patch[]
 191
 192--full-index::
 193        Instead of the first handful of characters, show the full
 194        pre- and post-image blob object names on the "index"
 195        line when generating patch format output.
 196
 197--binary::
 198        In addition to `--full-index`, output a binary diff that
 199        can be applied with `git-apply`.
 200
 201--abbrev[=<n>]::
 202        Instead of showing the full 40-byte hexadecimal object
 203        name in diff-raw format output and diff-tree header
 204        lines, show only a partial prefix.  This is
 205        independent of the `--full-index` option above, which controls
 206        the diff-patch output format.  Non default number of
 207        digits can be specified with `--abbrev=<n>`.
 208
 209-B::
 210        Break complete rewrite changes into pairs of delete and create.
 211
 212-M::
 213ifndef::git-log[]
 214        Detect renames.
 215endif::git-log[]
 216ifdef::git-log[]
 217        If generating diffs, detect and report renames for each commit.
 218        For following files across renames while traversing history, see
 219        `--follow`.
 220endif::git-log[]
 221
 222-C::
 223        Detect copies as well as renames.  See also `--find-copies-harder`.
 224
 225ifndef::git-format-patch[]
 226--diff-filter=[ACDMRTUXB*]::
 227        Select only files that are Added (`A`), Copied (`C`),
 228        Deleted (`D`), Modified (`M`), Renamed (`R`), have their
 229        type (i.e. regular file, symlink, submodule, ...) changed (`T`),
 230        are Unmerged (`U`), are
 231        Unknown (`X`), or have had their pairing Broken (`B`).
 232        Any combination of the filter characters may be used.
 233        When `*` (All-or-none) is added to the combination, all
 234        paths are selected if there is any file that matches
 235        other criteria in the comparison; if there is no file
 236        that matches other criteria, nothing is selected.
 237endif::git-format-patch[]
 238
 239--find-copies-harder::
 240        For performance reasons, by default, `-C` option finds copies only
 241        if the original file of the copy was modified in the same
 242        changeset.  This flag makes the command
 243        inspect unmodified files as candidates for the source of
 244        copy.  This is a very expensive operation for large
 245        projects, so use it with caution.  Giving more than one
 246        `-C` option has the same effect.
 247
 248-l<num>::
 249        The `-M` and `-C` options require O(n^2) processing time where n
 250        is the number of potential rename/copy targets.  This
 251        option prevents rename/copy detection from running if
 252        the number of rename/copy targets exceeds the specified
 253        number.
 254
 255ifndef::git-format-patch[]
 256-S<string>::
 257        Look for differences that introduce or remove an instance of
 258        <string>. Note that this is different than the string simply
 259        appearing in diff output; see the 'pickaxe' entry in
 260        linkgit:gitdiffcore[7] for more details.
 261
 262--pickaxe-all::
 263        When `-S` finds a change, show all the changes in that
 264        changeset, not just the files that contain the change
 265        in <string>.
 266
 267--pickaxe-regex::
 268        Make the <string> not a plain string but an extended POSIX
 269        regex to match.
 270endif::git-format-patch[]
 271
 272-O<orderfile>::
 273        Output the patch in the order specified in the
 274        <orderfile>, which has one shell glob pattern per line.
 275
 276ifndef::git-format-patch[]
 277-R::
 278        Swap two inputs; that is, show differences from index or
 279        on-disk file to tree contents.
 280
 281--relative[=<path>]::
 282        When run from a subdirectory of the project, it can be
 283        told to exclude changes outside the directory and show
 284        pathnames relative to it with this option.  When you are
 285        not in a subdirectory (e.g. in a bare repository), you
 286        can name which subdirectory to make the output relative
 287        to by giving a <path> as an argument.
 288endif::git-format-patch[]
 289
 290-a::
 291--text::
 292        Treat all files as text.
 293
 294--ignore-space-at-eol::
 295        Ignore changes in whitespace at EOL.
 296
 297-b::
 298--ignore-space-change::
 299        Ignore changes in amount of whitespace.  This ignores whitespace
 300        at line end, and considers all other sequences of one or
 301        more whitespace characters to be equivalent.
 302
 303-w::
 304--ignore-all-space::
 305        Ignore whitespace when comparing lines.  This ignores
 306        differences even if one line has whitespace where the other
 307        line has none.
 308
 309--inter-hunk-context=<lines>::
 310        Show the context between diff hunks, up to the specified number
 311        of lines, thereby fusing hunks that are close to each other.
 312
 313ifndef::git-format-patch[]
 314--exit-code::
 315        Make the program exit with codes similar to diff(1).
 316        That is, it exits with 1 if there were differences and
 317        0 means no differences.
 318
 319--quiet::
 320        Disable all output of the program. Implies `--exit-code`.
 321endif::git-format-patch[]
 322
 323--ext-diff::
 324        Allow an external diff helper to be executed. If you set an
 325        external diff driver with linkgit:gitattributes[5], you need
 326        to use this option with linkgit:git-log[1] and friends.
 327
 328--no-ext-diff::
 329        Disallow external diff drivers.
 330
 331--ignore-submodules[=<when>]::
 332        Ignore changes to submodules in the diff generation. <when> can be
 333        either "untracked", "dirty" or "all", which is the default. When
 334        "untracked" is used submodules are not considered dirty when they only
 335        contain untracked content (but they are still scanned for modified
 336        content). Using "dirty" ignores all changes to the work tree of submodules,
 337        only changes to the commits stored in the superproject are shown (this was
 338        the behavior until 1.7.0). Using "all" hides all changes to submodules.
 339
 340--src-prefix=<prefix>::
 341        Show the given source prefix instead of "a/".
 342
 343--dst-prefix=<prefix>::
 344        Show the given destination prefix instead of "b/".
 345
 346--no-prefix::
 347        Do not show any source or destination prefix.
 348
 349For more detailed explanation on these common options, see also
 350linkgit:gitdiffcore[7].