Documentation / diff-options.txton commit Merge branch 'tg/test-index-v4' (d78374e)
   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-s::
  30--no-patch::
  31        Suppress diff output. Useful for commands like `git show` that
  32        show the patch by default, or to cancel the effect of `--patch`.
  33
  34-U<n>::
  35--unified=<n>::
  36        Generate diffs with <n> lines of context instead of
  37        the usual three.
  38ifndef::git-format-patch[]
  39        Implies `-p`.
  40endif::git-format-patch[]
  41
  42ifndef::git-format-patch[]
  43--raw::
  44        Generate the raw format.
  45        {git-diff-core? This is the default.}
  46endif::git-format-patch[]
  47
  48ifndef::git-format-patch[]
  49--patch-with-raw::
  50        Synonym for `-p --raw`.
  51endif::git-format-patch[]
  52
  53--minimal::
  54        Spend extra time to make sure the smallest possible
  55        diff is produced.
  56
  57--patience::
  58        Generate a diff using the "patience diff" algorithm.
  59
  60--histogram::
  61        Generate a diff using the "histogram diff" algorithm.
  62
  63--diff-algorithm={patience|minimal|histogram|myers}::
  64        Choose a diff algorithm. The variants are as follows:
  65+
  66--
  67`default`, `myers`;;
  68        The basic greedy diff algorithm. Currently, this is the default.
  69`minimal`;;
  70        Spend extra time to make sure the smallest possible diff is
  71        produced.
  72`patience`;;
  73        Use "patience diff" algorithm when generating patches.
  74`histogram`;;
  75        This algorithm extends the patience algorithm to "support
  76        low-occurrence common elements".
  77--
  78+
  79For instance, if you configured diff.algorithm variable to a
  80non-default value and want to use the default one, then you
  81have to use `--diff-algorithm=default` option.
  82
  83--stat[=<width>[,<name-width>[,<count>]]]::
  84        Generate a diffstat. By default, as much space as necessary
  85        will be used for the filename part, and the rest for the graph
  86        part. Maximum width defaults to terminal width, or 80 columns
  87        if not connected to a terminal, and can be overridden by
  88        `<width>`. The width of the filename part can be limited by
  89        giving another width `<name-width>` after a comma. The width
  90        of the graph part can be limited by using
  91        `--stat-graph-width=<width>` (affects all commands generating
  92        a stat graph) or by setting `diff.statGraphWidth=<width>`
  93        (does not affect `git format-patch`).
  94        By giving a third parameter `<count>`, you can limit the
  95        output to the first `<count>` lines, followed by `...` if
  96        there are more.
  97+
  98These parameters can also be set individually with `--stat-width=<width>`,
  99`--stat-name-width=<name-width>` and `--stat-count=<count>`.
 100
 101--numstat::
 102        Similar to `--stat`, but shows number of added and
 103        deleted lines in decimal notation and pathname without
 104        abbreviation, to make it more machine friendly.  For
 105        binary files, outputs two `-` instead of saying
 106        `0 0`.
 107
 108--shortstat::
 109        Output only the last line of the `--stat` format containing total
 110        number of modified files, as well as number of added and deleted
 111        lines.
 112
 113--dirstat[=<param1,param2,...>]::
 114        Output the distribution of relative amount of changes for each
 115        sub-directory. The behavior of `--dirstat` can be customized by
 116        passing it a comma separated list of parameters.
 117        The defaults are controlled by the `diff.dirstat` configuration
 118        variable (see linkgit:git-config[1]).
 119        The following parameters are available:
 120+
 121--
 122`changes`;;
 123        Compute the dirstat numbers by counting the lines that have been
 124        removed from the source, or added to the destination. This ignores
 125        the amount of pure code movements within a file.  In other words,
 126        rearranging lines in a file is not counted as much as other changes.
 127        This is the default behavior when no parameter is given.
 128`lines`;;
 129        Compute the dirstat numbers by doing the regular line-based diff
 130        analysis, and summing the removed/added line counts. (For binary
 131        files, count 64-byte chunks instead, since binary files have no
 132        natural concept of lines). This is a more expensive `--dirstat`
 133        behavior than the `changes` behavior, but it does count rearranged
 134        lines within a file as much as other changes. The resulting output
 135        is consistent with what you get from the other `--*stat` options.
 136`files`;;
 137        Compute the dirstat numbers by counting the number of files changed.
 138        Each changed file counts equally in the dirstat analysis. This is
 139        the computationally cheapest `--dirstat` behavior, since it does
 140        not have to look at the file contents at all.
 141`cumulative`;;
 142        Count changes in a child directory for the parent directory as well.
 143        Note that when using `cumulative`, the sum of the percentages
 144        reported may exceed 100%. The default (non-cumulative) behavior can
 145        be specified with the `noncumulative` parameter.
 146<limit>;;
 147        An integer parameter specifies a cut-off percent (3% by default).
 148        Directories contributing less than this percentage of the changes
 149        are not shown in the output.
 150--
 151+
 152Example: The following will count changed files, while ignoring
 153directories with less than 10% of the total amount of changed files,
 154and accumulating child directory counts in the parent directories:
 155`--dirstat=files,10,cumulative`.
 156
 157--summary::
 158        Output a condensed summary of extended header information
 159        such as creations, renames and mode changes.
 160
 161ifndef::git-format-patch[]
 162--patch-with-stat::
 163        Synonym for `-p --stat`.
 164endif::git-format-patch[]
 165
 166ifndef::git-format-patch[]
 167
 168-z::
 169ifdef::git-log[]
 170        Separate the commits with NULs instead of with new newlines.
 171+
 172Also, when `--raw` or `--numstat` has been given, do not munge
 173pathnames and use NULs as output field terminators.
 174endif::git-log[]
 175ifndef::git-log[]
 176        When `--raw`, `--numstat`, `--name-only` or `--name-status` has been
 177        given, do not munge pathnames and use NULs as output field terminators.
 178endif::git-log[]
 179+
 180Without this option, each pathname output will have TAB, LF, double quotes,
 181and backslash characters replaced with `\t`, `\n`, `\"`, and `\\`,
 182respectively, and the pathname will be enclosed in double quotes if
 183any of those replacements occurred.
 184
 185--name-only::
 186        Show only names of changed files.
 187
 188--name-status::
 189        Show only names and status of changed files. See the description
 190        of the `--diff-filter` option on what the status letters mean.
 191
 192--submodule[=<format>]::
 193        Specify how differences in submodules are shown.  When `--submodule`
 194        or `--submodule=log` is given, the 'log' format is used.  This format lists
 195        the commits in the range like linkgit:git-submodule[1] `summary` does.
 196        Omitting the `--submodule` option or specifying `--submodule=short`,
 197        uses the 'short' format. This format just shows the names of the commits
 198        at the beginning and end of the range.  Can be tweaked via the
 199        `diff.submodule` configuration variable.
 200
 201--color[=<when>]::
 202        Show colored diff.
 203        `--color` (i.e. without '=<when>') is the same as `--color=always`.
 204        '<when>' can be one of `always`, `never`, or `auto`.
 205ifdef::git-diff[]
 206        It can be changed by the `color.ui` and `color.diff`
 207        configuration settings.
 208endif::git-diff[]
 209
 210--no-color::
 211        Turn off colored diff.
 212ifdef::git-diff[]
 213        This can be used to override configuration settings.
 214endif::git-diff[]
 215        It is the same as `--color=never`.
 216
 217--word-diff[=<mode>]::
 218        Show a word diff, using the <mode> to delimit changed words.
 219        By default, words are delimited by whitespace; see
 220        `--word-diff-regex` below.  The <mode> defaults to 'plain', and
 221        must be one of:
 222+
 223--
 224color::
 225        Highlight changed words using only colors.  Implies `--color`.
 226plain::
 227        Show words as `[-removed-]` and `{+added+}`.  Makes no
 228        attempts to escape the delimiters if they appear in the input,
 229        so the output may be ambiguous.
 230porcelain::
 231        Use a special line-based format intended for script
 232        consumption.  Added/removed/unchanged runs are printed in the
 233        usual unified diff format, starting with a `+`/`-`/` `
 234        character at the beginning of the line and extending to the
 235        end of the line.  Newlines in the input are represented by a
 236        tilde `~` on a line of its own.
 237none::
 238        Disable word diff again.
 239--
 240+
 241Note that despite the name of the first mode, color is used to
 242highlight the changed parts in all modes if enabled.
 243
 244--word-diff-regex=<regex>::
 245        Use <regex> to decide what a word is, instead of considering
 246        runs of non-whitespace to be a word.  Also implies
 247        `--word-diff` unless it was already enabled.
 248+
 249Every non-overlapping match of the
 250<regex> is considered a word.  Anything between these matches is
 251considered whitespace and ignored(!) for the purposes of finding
 252differences.  You may want to append `|[^[:space:]]` to your regular
 253expression to make sure that it matches all non-whitespace characters.
 254A match that contains a newline is silently truncated(!) at the
 255newline.
 256+
 257The regex can also be set via a diff driver or configuration option, see
 258linkgit:gitattributes[1] or linkgit:git-config[1].  Giving it explicitly
 259overrides any diff driver or configuration setting.  Diff drivers
 260override configuration settings.
 261
 262--color-words[=<regex>]::
 263        Equivalent to `--word-diff=color` plus (if a regex was
 264        specified) `--word-diff-regex=<regex>`.
 265endif::git-format-patch[]
 266
 267--no-renames::
 268        Turn off rename detection, even when the configuration
 269        file gives the default to do so.
 270
 271ifndef::git-format-patch[]
 272--check::
 273        Warn if changes introduce whitespace errors.  What are
 274        considered whitespace errors is controlled by `core.whitespace`
 275        configuration.  By default, trailing whitespaces (including
 276        lines that solely consist of whitespaces) and a space character
 277        that is immediately followed by a tab character inside the
 278        initial indent of the line are considered whitespace errors.
 279        Exits with non-zero status if problems are found. Not compatible
 280        with --exit-code.
 281endif::git-format-patch[]
 282
 283--full-index::
 284        Instead of the first handful of characters, show the full
 285        pre- and post-image blob object names on the "index"
 286        line when generating patch format output.
 287
 288--binary::
 289        In addition to `--full-index`, output a binary diff that
 290        can be applied with `git-apply`.
 291
 292--abbrev[=<n>]::
 293        Instead of showing the full 40-byte hexadecimal object
 294        name in diff-raw format output and diff-tree header
 295        lines, show only a partial prefix.  This is
 296        independent of the `--full-index` option above, which controls
 297        the diff-patch output format.  Non default number of
 298        digits can be specified with `--abbrev=<n>`.
 299
 300-B[<n>][/<m>]::
 301--break-rewrites[=[<n>][/<m>]]::
 302        Break complete rewrite changes into pairs of delete and
 303        create. This serves two purposes:
 304+
 305It affects the way a change that amounts to a total rewrite of a file
 306not as a series of deletion and insertion mixed together with a very
 307few lines that happen to match textually as the context, but as a
 308single deletion of everything old followed by a single insertion of
 309everything new, and the number `m` controls this aspect of the -B
 310option (defaults to 60%). `-B/70%` specifies that less than 30% of the
 311original should remain in the result for Git to consider it a total
 312rewrite (i.e. otherwise the resulting patch will be a series of
 313deletion and insertion mixed together with context lines).
 314+
 315When used with -M, a totally-rewritten file is also considered as the
 316source of a rename (usually -M only considers a file that disappeared
 317as the source of a rename), and the number `n` controls this aspect of
 318the -B option (defaults to 50%). `-B20%` specifies that a change with
 319addition and deletion compared to 20% or more of the file's size are
 320eligible for being picked up as a possible source of a rename to
 321another file.
 322
 323-M[<n>]::
 324--find-renames[=<n>]::
 325ifndef::git-log[]
 326        Detect renames.
 327endif::git-log[]
 328ifdef::git-log[]
 329        If generating diffs, detect and report renames for each commit.
 330        For following files across renames while traversing history, see
 331        `--follow`.
 332endif::git-log[]
 333        If `n` is specified, it is a threshold on the similarity
 334        index (i.e. amount of addition/deletions compared to the
 335        file's size). For example, `-M90%` means Git should consider a
 336        delete/add pair to be a rename if more than 90% of the file
 337        hasn't changed.  Without a `%` sign, the number is to be read as
 338        a fraction, with a decimal point before it.  I.e., `-M5` becomes
 339        0.5, and is thus the same as `-M50%`.  Similarly, `-M05` is
 340        the same as `-M5%`.  To limit detection to exact renames, use
 341        `-M100%`.  The default similarity index is 50%.
 342
 343-C[<n>]::
 344--find-copies[=<n>]::
 345        Detect copies as well as renames.  See also `--find-copies-harder`.
 346        If `n` is specified, it has the same meaning as for `-M<n>`.
 347
 348--find-copies-harder::
 349        For performance reasons, by default, `-C` option finds copies only
 350        if the original file of the copy was modified in the same
 351        changeset.  This flag makes the command
 352        inspect unmodified files as candidates for the source of
 353        copy.  This is a very expensive operation for large
 354        projects, so use it with caution.  Giving more than one
 355        `-C` option has the same effect.
 356
 357-D::
 358--irreversible-delete::
 359        Omit the preimage for deletes, i.e. print only the header but not
 360        the diff between the preimage and `/dev/null`. The resulting patch
 361        is not meant to be applied with `patch` or `git apply`; this is
 362        solely for people who want to just concentrate on reviewing the
 363        text after the change. In addition, the output obviously lack
 364        enough information to apply such a patch in reverse, even manually,
 365        hence the name of the option.
 366+
 367When used together with `-B`, omit also the preimage in the deletion part
 368of a delete/create pair.
 369
 370-l<num>::
 371        The `-M` and `-C` options require O(n^2) processing time where n
 372        is the number of potential rename/copy targets.  This
 373        option prevents rename/copy detection from running if
 374        the number of rename/copy targets exceeds the specified
 375        number.
 376
 377ifndef::git-format-patch[]
 378--diff-filter=[(A|C|D|M|R|T|U|X|B)...[*]]::
 379        Select only files that are Added (`A`), Copied (`C`),
 380        Deleted (`D`), Modified (`M`), Renamed (`R`), have their
 381        type (i.e. regular file, symlink, submodule, ...) changed (`T`),
 382        are Unmerged (`U`), are
 383        Unknown (`X`), or have had their pairing Broken (`B`).
 384        Any combination of the filter characters (including none) can be used.
 385        When `*` (All-or-none) is added to the combination, all
 386        paths are selected if there is any file that matches
 387        other criteria in the comparison; if there is no file
 388        that matches other criteria, nothing is selected.
 389
 390-S<string>::
 391        Look for differences that change the number of occurrences of
 392        the specified string (i.e. addition/deletion) in a file.
 393        Intended for the scripter's use.
 394+
 395It is useful when you're looking for an exact block of code (like a
 396struct), and want to know the history of that block since it first
 397came into being: use the feature iteratively to feed the interesting
 398block in the preimage back into `-S`, and keep going until you get the
 399very first version of the block.
 400
 401-G<regex>::
 402        Look for differences whose patch text contains added/removed
 403        lines that match <regex>.
 404+
 405To illustrate the difference between `-S<regex> --pickaxe-regex` and
 406`-G<regex>`, consider a commit with the following diff in the same
 407file:
 408+
 409----
 410+    return !regexec(regexp, two->ptr, 1, &regmatch, 0);
 411...
 412-    hit = !regexec(regexp, mf2.ptr, 1, &regmatch, 0);
 413----
 414+
 415While `git log -G"regexec\(regexp"` will show this commit, `git log
 416-S"regexec\(regexp" --pickaxe-regex` will not (because the number of
 417occurrences of that string did not change).
 418+
 419See the 'pickaxe' entry in linkgit:gitdiffcore[7] for more
 420information.
 421
 422--pickaxe-all::
 423        When `-S` or `-G` finds a change, show all the changes in that
 424        changeset, not just the files that contain the change
 425        in <string>.
 426
 427--pickaxe-regex::
 428        Treat the <string> given to `-S` as an extended POSIX regular
 429        expression to match.
 430endif::git-format-patch[]
 431
 432-O<orderfile>::
 433        Output the patch in the order specified in the
 434        <orderfile>, which has one shell glob pattern per line.
 435        This overrides the `diff.orderFile` configuration variable
 436        (see linkgit:git-config[1]).  To cancel `diff.orderFile`,
 437        use `-O/dev/null`.
 438
 439ifndef::git-format-patch[]
 440-R::
 441        Swap two inputs; that is, show differences from index or
 442        on-disk file to tree contents.
 443
 444--relative[=<path>]::
 445        When run from a subdirectory of the project, it can be
 446        told to exclude changes outside the directory and show
 447        pathnames relative to it with this option.  When you are
 448        not in a subdirectory (e.g. in a bare repository), you
 449        can name which subdirectory to make the output relative
 450        to by giving a <path> as an argument.
 451endif::git-format-patch[]
 452
 453-a::
 454--text::
 455        Treat all files as text.
 456
 457--ignore-space-at-eol::
 458        Ignore changes in whitespace at EOL.
 459
 460-b::
 461--ignore-space-change::
 462        Ignore changes in amount of whitespace.  This ignores whitespace
 463        at line end, and considers all other sequences of one or
 464        more whitespace characters to be equivalent.
 465
 466-w::
 467--ignore-all-space::
 468        Ignore whitespace when comparing lines.  This ignores
 469        differences even if one line has whitespace where the other
 470        line has none.
 471
 472--ignore-blank-lines::
 473        Ignore changes whose lines are all blank.
 474
 475--inter-hunk-context=<lines>::
 476        Show the context between diff hunks, up to the specified number
 477        of lines, thereby fusing hunks that are close to each other.
 478
 479-W::
 480--function-context::
 481        Show whole surrounding functions of changes.
 482
 483ifndef::git-format-patch[]
 484ifndef::git-log[]
 485--exit-code::
 486        Make the program exit with codes similar to diff(1).
 487        That is, it exits with 1 if there were differences and
 488        0 means no differences.
 489
 490--quiet::
 491        Disable all output of the program. Implies `--exit-code`.
 492endif::git-log[]
 493endif::git-format-patch[]
 494
 495--ext-diff::
 496        Allow an external diff helper to be executed. If you set an
 497        external diff driver with linkgit:gitattributes[5], you need
 498        to use this option with linkgit:git-log[1] and friends.
 499
 500--no-ext-diff::
 501        Disallow external diff drivers.
 502
 503--textconv::
 504--no-textconv::
 505        Allow (or disallow) external text conversion filters to be run
 506        when comparing binary files. See linkgit:gitattributes[5] for
 507        details. Because textconv filters are typically a one-way
 508        conversion, the resulting diff is suitable for human
 509        consumption, but cannot be applied. For this reason, textconv
 510        filters are enabled by default only for linkgit:git-diff[1] and
 511        linkgit:git-log[1], but not for linkgit:git-format-patch[1] or
 512        diff plumbing commands.
 513
 514--ignore-submodules[=<when>]::
 515        Ignore changes to submodules in the diff generation. <when> can be
 516        either "none", "untracked", "dirty" or "all", which is the default.
 517        Using "none" will consider the submodule modified when it either contains
 518        untracked or modified files or its HEAD differs from the commit recorded
 519        in the superproject and can be used to override any settings of the
 520        'ignore' option in linkgit:git-config[1] or linkgit:gitmodules[5]. When
 521        "untracked" is used submodules are not considered dirty when they only
 522        contain untracked content (but they are still scanned for modified
 523        content). Using "dirty" ignores all changes to the work tree of submodules,
 524        only changes to the commits stored in the superproject are shown (this was
 525        the behavior until 1.7.0). Using "all" hides all changes to submodules.
 526
 527--src-prefix=<prefix>::
 528        Show the given source prefix instead of "a/".
 529
 530--dst-prefix=<prefix>::
 531        Show the given destination prefix instead of "b/".
 532
 533--no-prefix::
 534        Do not show any source or destination prefix.
 535
 536For more detailed explanation on these common options, see also
 537linkgit:gitdiffcore[7].