X-Git-Url: https://git.octo.it/?a=blobdiff_plain;f=Documentation%2Fgit-diff.txt;h=7ab20803761b0d5ac69e3b9acc31ed4e9d59ef4c;hb=d3ff6f55012c939740ce0982b24aeb6fba3c6e4f;hp=cf7527f5e9a4fe005b55f56e16a558454df9d6ba;hpb=a9572072f0ab0ac97e64b0dc01254a3ad95befe1;p=git.git

diff --git a/Documentation/git-diff.txt b/Documentation/git-diff.txt
index cf7527f5..7ab20803 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-diff.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-diff.txt
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ git-diff(1)
 
 NAME
 ----
-git-diff - Show changes between commits, commit and working tree, etc.
+git-diff - Show changes between commits, commit and working tree, etc
 
 
 SYNOPSIS
@@ -40,6 +40,68 @@ OPTIONS
 	commands.
 
 
+EXAMPLES
+--------
+
+Various ways to check your working tree::
++
+------------
+$ git diff            <1>
+$ git diff --cached   <2>
+$ git diff HEAD       <3>
+------------
++
+<1> changes in the working tree since your last git-update-index.
+<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
+would be committing if you run "git commit -a"
+
+Comparing with arbitrary commits::
++
+------------
+$ git diff test            <1>
+$ git diff HEAD -- ./test  <2>
+$ git diff HEAD^ HEAD      <3>
+------------
++
+<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
+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.
+
+
+Limiting the diff output::
++
+------------
+$ git diff --diff-filter=MRC            <1>
+$ git diff --name-status -r             <2>
+$ git diff arch/i386 include/asm-i386   <3>
+------------
++
+<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.
+
+Munging the diff output::
++
+------------
+$ git diff --find-copies-harder -B -C  <1>
+$ git diff -R                          <2>
+------------
++
+<1> spend extra cycles to find renames, copies and complete
+rewrites (very expensive).
+<2> output diff in reverse.
+
+
 Author
 ------
 Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>