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20 .TH "GIT-DIFF-FILES" 1 "" "" ""
22 git-diff-files \- Compares files in the working tree and the index
26 \fIgit\-diff\-files\fR [\-q] [\-0|\-1|\-2|\-3|\-c|\-\-cc] [<common diff options>] [<path>...]
31 Compares the files in the working tree and the index\&. When paths are specified, compares only those named paths\&. Otherwise all entries in the index are compared\&. The output format is the same as "git\-diff\-index" and "git\-diff\-tree"\&.
37 Generate patch (see section on generating patches)
45 Generate patch but keep also the default raw diff output\&.
49 Generate a diffstat instead of a patch\&.
53 Generate patch and prepend its diffstat\&.
57 \\0 line termination on output
61 Show only names of changed files\&.
65 Show only names and status of changed files\&.
69 Instead of the first handful characters, show full object name of pre\- and post\-image blob on the "index" line when generating a patch format output\&.
73 Instead of showing the full 40\-byte hexadecimal object name in diff\-raw format output and diff\-tree header lines, show only handful hexdigits prefix\&. This is independent of \-\-full\-index option above, which controls the diff\-patch output format\&. Non default number of digits can be specified with \-\-abbrev=<n>\&.
77 Break complete rewrite changes into pairs of delete and create\&.
85 Detect copies as well as renames\&.
88 \-\-diff\-filter=[ACDMRTUXB*]
89 Select only files that are Added (A), Copied (C), Deleted (D), Modified (M), Renamed (R), have their type (mode) changed (T), are Unmerged (U), are Unknown (X), or have had their pairing Broken (B)\&. Any combination of the filter characters may be used\&. When * (All\-or\-none) is added to the combination, all paths are selected if there is any file that matches other criteria in the comparison; if there is no file that matches other criteria, nothing is selected\&.
92 \-\-find\-copies\-harder
93 For performance reasons, by default, \-C option finds copies only if the original file of the copy was modified in the same changeset\&. This flag makes the command inspect unmodified files as candidates for the source of copy\&. This is a very expensive operation for large projects, so use it with caution\&.
97 \-M and \-C options require O(n^2) processing time where n is the number of potential rename/copy targets\&. This option prevents rename/copy detection from running if the number of rename/copy targets exceeds the specified number\&.
101 Look for differences that contain the change in <string>\&.
105 When \-S finds a change, show all the changes in that changeset, not just the files that contain the change in <string>\&.
109 Make the <string> not a plain string but an extended POSIX regex to match\&.
113 Output the patch in the order specified in the <orderfile>, which has one shell glob pattern per line\&.
117 Swap two inputs; that is, show differences from index or on\-disk file to tree contents\&.
120 For more detailed explanation on these common options, see also diffcore documentation: \fIdiffcore.html\fR\&.
123 \-1 \-2 \-3 or \-\-base \-\-ours \-\-theirs, and \-0
124 Diff against the "base" version, "our branch" or "their branch" respectively\&. With these options, diffs for merged entries are not shown\&.
126 The default is to diff against our branch (\-2) and the cleanly resolved paths\&. The option \-0 can be given to omit diff output for unmerged entries and just show "Unmerged"\&.
130 This compares stage 2 (our branch), stage 3 (their branch) and the working tree file and outputs a combined diff, similar to the way \fIdiff\-tree\fR shows a merge commit with these flags\&.
134 Remain silent even on nonexisting files
139 The output format from "git\-diff\-index", "git\-diff\-tree" and "git\-diff\-files" are very similar\&.
142 These commands all compare two sets of things; what is compared differs:
145 git\-diff\-index <tree\-ish>
146 compares the <tree\-ish> and the files on the filesystem\&.
149 git\-diff\-index \-\-cached <tree\-ish>
150 compares the <tree\-ish> and the index\&.
153 git\-diff\-tree [\-r] <tree\-ish\-1> <tree\-ish\-2> [<pattern>...]
154 compares the trees named by the two arguments\&.
157 git\-diff\-files [<pattern>...]
158 compares the index and the files on the filesystem\&.
161 An output line is formatted this way:
164 in\-place edit :100644 100644 bcd1234\&.\&.\&. 0123456\&.\&.\&. M file0
165 copy\-edit :100644 100644 abcd123\&.\&.\&. 1234567\&.\&.\&. C68 file1 file2
166 rename\-edit :100644 100644 abcd123\&.\&.\&. 1234567\&.\&.\&. R86 file1 file3
167 create :000000 100644 0000000\&.\&.\&. 1234567\&.\&.\&. A file4
168 delete :100644 000000 1234567\&.\&.\&. 0000000\&.\&.\&. D file5
169 unmerged :000000 000000 0000000\&.\&.\&. 0000000\&.\&.\&. U file6
173 That is, from the left to the right:
180 mode for "src"; 000000 if creation or unmerged\&.
186 mode for "dst"; 000000 if deletion or unmerged\&.
192 sha1 for "src"; 0{40} if creation or unmerged\&.
198 sha1 for "dst"; 0{40} if creation, unmerged or "look at work tree"\&.
204 status, followed by optional "score" number\&.
207 a tab or a NUL when \fI\-z\fR option is used\&.
213 a tab or a NUL when \fI\-z\fR option is used; only exists for C or R\&.
216 path for "dst"; only exists for C or R\&.
219 an LF or a NUL when \fI\-z\fR option is used, to terminate the record\&.
223 <sha1> is shown as all 0's if a file is new on the filesystem and it is out of sync with the index\&.
229 :100644 100644 5be4a4\&.\&.\&.\&.\&.\&. 000000\&.\&.\&.\&.\&.\&. M file\&.c
233 When \-z option is not used, TAB, LF, and backslash characters in pathnames are represented as \\t, \\n, and \\\\, respectively\&.
235 .SH "GENERATING PATCHES WITH -P"
238 When "git\-diff\-index", "git\-diff\-tree", or "git\-diff\-files" are run with a \fI\-p\fR option, they do not produce the output described above; instead they produce a patch file\&.
241 The patch generation can be customized at two levels\&.
245 When the environment variable \fIGIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF\fR is not set, these commands internally invoke "diff" like this:
249 diff \-L a/<path> \-L b/<path> \-pu <old> <new>
251 For added files, /dev/null is used for <old>\&. For removed files, /dev/null is used for <new>
253 The "diff" formatting options can be customized via the environment variable \fIGIT_DIFF_OPTS\fR\&. For example, if you prefer context diff:
256 GIT_DIFF_OPTS=\-c git\-diff\-index \-p HEAD
260 When the environment variable \fIGIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF\fR is set, the program named by it is called, instead of the diff invocation described above\&.
262 For a path that is added, removed, or modified, \fIGIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF\fR is called with 7 parameters:
266 path old\-file old\-hex old\-mode new\-file new\-hex new\-mode
272 are files GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF can use to read the contents of <old|new>,
276 are the 40\-hexdigit SHA1 hashes,
280 are the octal representation of the file modes\&.
282 The file parameters can point at the user's working file (e\&.g\&. new\-file in "git\-diff\-files"), /dev/null (e\&.g\&. old\-file when a new file is added), or a temporary file (e\&.g\&. old\-file in the index)\&. \fIGIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF\fR should not worry about unlinking the temporary file \-\-\- it is removed when \fIGIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF\fR exits\&.
286 For a path that is unmerged, \fIGIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF\fR is called with 1 parameter, <path>\&.
288 .SH "GIT SPECIFIC EXTENSION TO DIFF FORMAT"
291 What \-p option produces is slightly different from the traditional diff format\&.
295 It is preceded with a "git diff" header, that looks like this:
299 diff \-\-git a/file1 b/file2
301 The a/ and b/ filenames are the same unless rename/copy is involved\&. Especially, even for a creation or a deletion, /dev/null is _not_ used in place of a/ or b/ filenames\&.
303 When rename/copy is involved, file1 and file2 show the name of the source file of the rename/copy and the name of the file that rename/copy produces, respectively\&.
306 It is followed by one or more extended header lines:
311 deleted file mode <mode>
317 similarity index <number>
318 dissimilarity index <number>
319 index <hash>\&.\&.<hash> <mode>
323 TAB, LF, and backslash characters in pathnames are represented as \\t, \\n, and \\\\, respectively\&.
326 .SH "COMBINED DIFF FORMAT"
329 git\-diff\-tree and git\-diff\-files can take \fI\-c\fR or \fI\-\-cc\fR option to produce \fIcombined diff\fR, which looks like this:
332 diff \-\-combined describe\&.c
334 return (a_date > b_date) ? \-1 : (a_date == b_date) ? 0 : 1;
337 \- static void describe(char *arg)
338 \-static void describe(struct commit *cmit, int last_one)
339 ++static void describe(char *arg, int last_one)
341 + unsigned char sha1[20];
342 + struct commit *cmit;
346 Unlike the traditional \fIunified\fR diff format, which shows two files A and B with a single column that has \- (minus -- appears in A but removed in B), + (plus -- missing in A but added to B), or (space -- unchanged) prefix, this format compares two or more files file1, file2,... with one file X, and shows how X differs from each of fileN\&. One column for each of fileN is prepended to the output line to note how X's line is different from it\&.
349 A \- character in the column N means that the line appears in fileN but it does not appear in the last file\&. A + character in the column N means that the line appears in the last file, and fileN does not have that line\&.
352 In the above example output, the function signature was changed from both files (hence two \- removals from both file1 and file2, plus ++ to mean one line that was added does not appear in either file1 nor file2)\&. Also two other lines are the same from file1 but do not appear in file2 (hence prefixed with +)\&.
355 When shown by git diff\-tree \-c, it compares the parents of a merge commit with the merge result (i\&.e\&. file1\&.\&.fileN are the parents)\&. When shown by git diff\-files \-c, it compares the two unresolved merge parents with the working tree file (i\&.e\&. file1 is stage 2 aka "our version", file2 is stage 3 aka "their version")\&.
360 Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl\&.org>
365 Documentation by David Greaves, Junio C Hamano and the git\-list <git@vger\&.kernel\&.org>\&.
370 Part of the \fBgit\fR(7) suite