words, the differences are what you _could_ tell git to
further add to the index but you still haven't. You can
stage these changes by using gitlink:git-add[1].
-
- If exactly two paths are given, and at least one is untracked,
- compare the two files / directories. This behavior can be
- forced by --no-index.
++
+If exactly two paths are given, and at least one is untracked,
+compare the two files / directories. This behavior can be
+forced by --no-index.
'git-diff' [--options] --cached [<commit>] [--] [<path>...]::
'git-diff' [--options] <commit> <commit> [--] [<path>...]::
- This form is to view the changes between two <commit>,
- for example, tips of two branches.
+ This is to view the changes between two arbitrary
+ <commit>.
+
+'git-diff' [--options] <commit>..<commit> [--] [<path>...]::
+
+ This is synonymous to the previous form. If <commit> on
+ one side is omitted, it will have the same effect as
+ using HEAD instead.
+
+'git-diff' [--options] <commit>\...<commit> [--] [<path>...]::
+
+ This form is to view the changes on the branch containing
+ and up to the second <commit>, starting at a common ancestor
+ of both <commit>. "git-diff A\...B" is equivalent to
+ "git-diff $(git-merge-base A B) B". You can omit any one
+ of <commit>, which has the same effect as using HEAD instead.
Just in case if you are doing something exotic, it should be
-noted that all of the <commit> in the above description can be
-any <tree-ish>.
+noted that all of the <commit> in the above description, except
+for the last two forms that use ".." notations, can be any
+<tree-ish>.
For a more complete list of ways to spell <commit>, see
"SPECIFYING REVISIONS" section in gitlink:git-rev-parse[1].
-
+However, "diff" is about comparing two _endpoints_, not ranges,
+and the range notations ("<commit>..<commit>" and
+"<commit>\...<commit>") do not mean a range as defined in the
+"SPECIFYING RANGES" section in gitlink:git-rev-parse[1].
OPTIONS
-------
$ git diff HEAD <3>
------------
+
-<1> changes in the working tree not yet staged for the next commit.
-<2> changes between the index and your last commit; what you
+<1> Changes in the working tree not yet staged for the next commit.
+<2> Changes between the index and your last commit; what you
would be committing if you run "git commit" without "-a" option.
-<3> changes in the working tree since your last commit; what you
+<3> Changes in the working tree since your last commit; what you
would be committing if you run "git commit -a"
Comparing with arbitrary commits::
$ git diff HEAD^ HEAD <3>
------------
+
-<1> instead of using the tip of the current branch, compare with the
+<1> Instead of using the tip of the current branch, compare with the
tip of "test" branch.
-<2> instead of comparing with the tip of "test" branch, compare with
+<2> Instead of comparing with the tip of "test" branch, compare with
the tip of the current branch, but limit the comparison to the
file "test".
-<3> compare the version before the last commit and the last commit.
+<3> Compare the version before the last commit and the last commit.
+Comparing branches::
++
+------------
+$ git diff topic master <1>
+$ git diff topic..master <2>
+$ git diff topic...master <3>
+------------
++
+<1> Changes between the tips of the topic and the master branches.
+<2> Same as above.
+<3> Changes that occured on the master branch since when the topic
+branch was started off it.
Limiting the diff output::
+
------------
$ git diff --diff-filter=MRC <1>
-$ git diff --name-status -r <2>
+$ git diff --name-status <2>
$ git diff arch/i386 include/asm-i386 <3>
------------
+
-<1> show only modification, rename and copy, but not addition
+<1> Show only modification, rename and copy, but not addition
nor deletion.
-<2> show only names and the nature of change, but not actual
-diff output. --name-status disables usual patch generation
-which in turn also disables recursive behavior, so without -r
-you would only see the directory name if there is a change in a
-file in a subdirectory.
-<3> limit diff output to named subtrees.
+<2> Show only names and the nature of change, but not actual
+diff output.
+<3> Limit diff output to named subtrees.
Munging the diff output::
+
$ git diff -R <2>
------------
+
-<1> spend extra cycles to find renames, copies and complete
+<1> Spend extra cycles to find renames, copies and complete
rewrites (very expensive).
-<2> output diff in reverse.
+<2> Output diff in reverse.
Author