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 ] <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 gitlink:git-add[1]. 25 26'git-diff' [--options] --cached [<commit>] [--] [<path>...]:: 27 28 This form is to view the changes you staged for the next 29 commit relative to the named <commit>. Typically you 30 would want comparison with the latest commit, so if you 31 do not give <commit>, it defaults to HEAD. 32 33'git-diff' [--options] <commit> [--] [<path>...]:: 34 35 This form is to view the changes you have in your 36 working tree relative to the named <commit>. You can 37 use HEAD to compare it with the latest commit, or a 38 branch name to compare with the tip of a different 39 branch. 40 41'git-diff' [--options] <commit> <commit> [--] [<path>...]:: 42 43 This form is to view the changes between two <commit>, 44 for example, tips of two branches. 45 46Just in case if you are doing something exotic, it should be 47noted that all of the <commit> in the above description can be 48any <tree-ish>. 49 50For a more complete list of ways to spell <commit>, see 51"SPECIFYING REVISIONS" section in gitlink:git-rev-parse[1]. 52 53 54OPTIONS 55------- 56include::diff-options.txt[] 57 58<path>...:: 59 The <paths> parameters, when given, are used to limit 60 the diff to the named paths (you can give directory 61 names and get diff for all files under them). 62 63 64EXAMPLES 65-------- 66 67Various ways to check your working tree:: 68+ 69------------ 70$ git diff <1> 71$ git diff --cached <2> 72$ git diff HEAD <3> 73------------ 74+ 75<1> changes in the working tree not yet staged for the next commit. 76<2> changes between the index and your last commit; what you 77would be committing if you run "git commit" without "-a" option. 78<3> changes in the working tree since your last commit; what you 79would be committing if you run "git commit -a" 80 81Comparing with arbitrary commits:: 82+ 83------------ 84$ git diff test <1> 85$ git diff HEAD -- ./test <2> 86$ git diff HEAD^ HEAD <3> 87------------ 88+ 89<1> instead of using the tip of the current branch, compare with the 90tip of "test" branch. 91<2> instead of comparing with the tip of "test" branch, compare with 92the tip of the current branch, but limit the comparison to the 93file "test". 94<3> compare the version before the last commit and the last commit. 95 96 97Limiting the diff output:: 98+ 99------------ 100$ git diff --diff-filter=MRC <1> 101$ git diff --name-status -r <2> 102$ git diff arch/i386 include/asm-i386 <3> 103------------ 104+ 105<1> show only modification, rename and copy, but not addition 106nor deletion. 107<2> show only names and the nature of change, but not actual 108diff output. --name-status disables usual patch generation 109which in turn also disables recursive behavior, so without -r 110you would only see the directory name if there is a change in a 111file in a subdirectory. 112<3> limit diff output to named subtrees. 113 114Munging the diff output:: 115+ 116------------ 117$ git diff --find-copies-harder -B -C <1> 118$ git diff -R <2> 119------------ 120+ 121<1> spend extra cycles to find renames, copies and complete 122rewrites (very expensive). 123<2> output diff in reverse. 124 125 126Author 127------ 128Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org> 129 130Documentation 131-------------- 132Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>. 133 134GIT 135--- 136Part of the gitlink:git[7] suite 137