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 $(git-merge-base A B) B". You can omit any one 63 of <commit>, which has the same effect as using HEAD instead. 64 65Just in case if you are doing something exotic, it should be 66noted that all of the <commit> in the above description, except 67for the last two forms that use ".." notations, can be any 68<tree-ish>. 69 70For a more complete list of ways to spell <commit>, see 71"SPECIFYING REVISIONS" section in linkgit:git-rev-parse[1]. 72However, "diff" is about comparing two _endpoints_, not ranges, 73and the range notations ("<commit>..<commit>" and 74"<commit>\...<commit>") do not mean a range as defined in the 75"SPECIFYING RANGES" section in linkgit:git-rev-parse[1]. 76 77OPTIONS 78------- 79:git-diff: 1 80include::diff-options.txt[] 81 82<path>...:: 83 The <paths> parameters, when given, are used to limit 84 the diff to the named paths (you can give directory 85 names and get diff for all files under them). 86 87Output format 88------------- 89include::diff-format.txt[] 90 91EXAMPLES 92-------- 93 94Various ways to check your working tree:: 95+ 96------------ 97$ git diff <1> 98$ git diff --cached <2> 99$ git diff HEAD <3> 100------------ 101+ 102<1> Changes in the working tree not yet staged for the next commit. 103<2> Changes between the index and your last commit; what you 104would be committing if you run "git commit" without "-a" option. 105<3> Changes in the working tree since your last commit; what you 106would be committing if you run "git commit -a" 107 108Comparing with arbitrary commits:: 109+ 110------------ 111$ git diff test <1> 112$ git diff HEAD -- ./test <2> 113$ git diff HEAD^ HEAD <3> 114------------ 115+ 116<1> Instead of using the tip of the current branch, compare with the 117tip of "test" branch. 118<2> Instead of comparing with the tip of "test" branch, compare with 119the tip of the current branch, but limit the comparison to the 120file "test". 121<3> Compare the version before the last commit and the last commit. 122 123Comparing branches:: 124+ 125------------ 126$ git diff topic master <1> 127$ git diff topic..master <2> 128$ git diff topic...master <3> 129------------ 130+ 131<1> Changes between the tips of the topic and the master branches. 132<2> Same as above. 133<3> Changes that occurred on the master branch since when the topic 134branch was started off it. 135 136Limiting the diff output:: 137+ 138------------ 139$ git diff --diff-filter=MRC <1> 140$ git diff --name-status <2> 141$ git diff arch/i386 include/asm-i386 <3> 142------------ 143+ 144<1> Show only modification, rename and copy, but not addition 145nor deletion. 146<2> Show only names and the nature of change, but not actual 147diff output. 148<3> Limit diff output to named subtrees. 149 150Munging the diff output:: 151+ 152------------ 153$ git diff --find-copies-harder -B -C <1> 154$ git diff -R <2> 155------------ 156+ 157<1> Spend extra cycles to find renames, copies and complete 158rewrites (very expensive). 159<2> Output diff in reverse. 160 161 162Author 163------ 164Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org> 165 166Documentation 167-------------- 168Documentation by Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>. 169 170GIT 171--- 172Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite