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735 <body class="manpage">
736 <div id="header">
737 <h1>
738 git-diff(1) Manual Page
739 </h1>
740 <h2>NAME</h2>
741 <div class="sectionbody">
742 <p>git-diff -
743 Show changes between commits, commit and working tree, etc
744 </p>
745 </div>
746 </div>
747 <div id="content">
748 <div class="sect1">
749 <h2 id="_synopsis">SYNOPSIS</h2>
750 <div class="sectionbody">
751 <div class="verseblock">
752 <pre class="content"><em>git diff</em> [&lt;options&gt;] [&lt;commit&gt;] [--] [&lt;path&gt;&#8230;]
753 <em>git diff</em> [&lt;options&gt;] --cached [--merge-base] [&lt;commit&gt;] [--] [&lt;path&gt;&#8230;]
754 <em>git diff</em> [&lt;options&gt;] [--merge-base] &lt;commit&gt; [&lt;commit&gt;&#8230;] &lt;commit&gt; [--] [&lt;path&gt;&#8230;]
755 <em>git diff</em> [&lt;options&gt;] &lt;commit&gt;&#8230;&lt;commit&gt; [--] [&lt;path&gt;&#8230;]
756 <em>git diff</em> [&lt;options&gt;] &lt;blob&gt; &lt;blob&gt;
757 <em>git diff</em> [&lt;options&gt;] --no-index [--] &lt;path&gt; &lt;path&gt;</pre>
758 <div class="attribution">
759 </div></div>
760 </div>
761 </div>
762 <div class="sect1">
763 <h2 id="_description">DESCRIPTION</h2>
764 <div class="sectionbody">
765 <div class="paragraph"><p>Show changes between the working tree and the index or a tree, changes
766 between the index and a tree, changes between two trees, changes resulting
767 from a merge, changes between two blob objects, or changes between two
768 files on disk.</p></div>
769 <div class="dlist"><dl>
770 <dt class="hdlist1">
771 <em>git diff</em> [&lt;options&gt;] [--] [&lt;path&gt;&#8230;]
772 </dt>
773 <dd>
775 This form is to view the changes you made relative to
776 the index (staging area for the next commit). In other
777 words, the differences are what you <em>could</em> tell Git to
778 further add to the index but you still haven&#8217;t. You can
779 stage these changes by using <a href="git-add.html">git-add(1)</a>.
780 </p>
781 </dd>
782 <dt class="hdlist1">
783 <em>git diff</em> [&lt;options&gt;] --no-index [--] &lt;path&gt; &lt;path&gt;
784 </dt>
785 <dd>
787 This form is to compare the given two paths on the
788 filesystem. You can omit the <code>--no-index</code> option when
789 running the command in a working tree controlled by Git and
790 at least one of the paths points outside the working tree,
791 or when running the command outside a working tree
792 controlled by Git. This form implies <code>--exit-code</code>.
793 </p>
794 </dd>
795 <dt class="hdlist1">
796 <em>git diff</em> [&lt;options&gt;] --cached [--merge-base] [&lt;commit&gt;] [--] [&lt;path&gt;&#8230;]
797 </dt>
798 <dd>
800 This form is to view the changes you staged for the next
801 commit relative to the named &lt;commit&gt;. Typically you
802 would want comparison with the latest commit, so if you
803 do not give &lt;commit&gt;, it defaults to HEAD.
804 If HEAD does not exist (e.g. unborn branches) and
805 &lt;commit&gt; is not given, it shows all staged changes.
806 --staged is a synonym of --cached.
807 </p>
808 <div class="paragraph"><p>If --merge-base is given, instead of using &lt;commit&gt;, use the merge base
809 of &lt;commit&gt; and HEAD. <code>git diff --cached --merge-base A</code> is equivalent to
810 <code>git diff --cached $(git merge-base A HEAD)</code>.</p></div>
811 </dd>
812 <dt class="hdlist1">
813 <em>git diff</em> [&lt;options&gt;] [--merge-base] &lt;commit&gt; [--] [&lt;path&gt;&#8230;]
814 </dt>
815 <dd>
817 This form is to view the changes you have in your
818 working tree relative to the named &lt;commit&gt;. You can
819 use HEAD to compare it with the latest commit, or a
820 branch name to compare with the tip of a different
821 branch.
822 </p>
823 <div class="paragraph"><p>If --merge-base is given, instead of using &lt;commit&gt;, use the merge base
824 of &lt;commit&gt; and HEAD. <code>git diff --merge-base A</code> is equivalent to
825 <code>git diff $(git merge-base A HEAD)</code>.</p></div>
826 </dd>
827 <dt class="hdlist1">
828 <em>git diff</em> [&lt;options&gt;] [--merge-base] &lt;commit&gt; &lt;commit&gt; [--] [&lt;path&gt;&#8230;]
829 </dt>
830 <dd>
832 This is to view the changes between two arbitrary
833 &lt;commit&gt;.
834 </p>
835 <div class="paragraph"><p>If --merge-base is given, use the merge base of the two commits for the
836 "before" side. <code>git diff --merge-base A B</code> is equivalent to
837 <code>git diff $(git merge-base A B) B</code>.</p></div>
838 </dd>
839 <dt class="hdlist1">
840 <em>git diff</em> [&lt;options&gt;] &lt;commit&gt; &lt;commit&gt;&#8230; &lt;commit&gt; [--] [&lt;path&gt;&#8230;]
841 </dt>
842 <dd>
844 This form is to view the results of a merge commit. The first
845 listed &lt;commit&gt; must be the merge itself; the remaining two or
846 more commits should be its parents. Convenient ways to produce
847 the desired set of revisions are to use the suffixes <code>^@</code> and
848 <code>^!</code>. If A is a merge commit, then <code>git diff A A^@</code>,
849 <code>git diff A^!</code> and <code>git show A</code> all give the same combined diff.
850 </p>
851 </dd>
852 <dt class="hdlist1">
853 <em>git diff</em> [&lt;options&gt;] &lt;commit&gt;..&lt;commit&gt; [--] [&lt;path&gt;&#8230;]
854 </dt>
855 <dd>
857 This is synonymous to the earlier form (without the <code>..</code>) for
858 viewing the changes between two arbitrary &lt;commit&gt;. If &lt;commit&gt; on
859 one side is omitted, it will have the same effect as
860 using HEAD instead.
861 </p>
862 </dd>
863 <dt class="hdlist1">
864 <em>git diff</em> [&lt;options&gt;] &lt;commit&gt;...&lt;commit&gt; [--] [&lt;path&gt;&#8230;]
865 </dt>
866 <dd>
868 This form is to view the changes on the branch containing
869 and up to the second &lt;commit&gt;, starting at a common ancestor
870 of both &lt;commit&gt;. <code>git diff A...B</code> is equivalent to
871 <code>git diff $(git merge-base A B) B</code>. You can omit any one
872 of &lt;commit&gt;, which has the same effect as using HEAD instead.
873 </p>
874 </dd>
875 </dl></div>
876 <div class="paragraph"><p>Just in case you are doing something exotic, it should be
877 noted that all of the &lt;commit&gt; in the above description, except
878 in the <code>--merge-base</code> case and in the last two forms that use <code>..</code>
879 notations, can be any &lt;tree&gt;. A tree of interest is the one pointed to
880 by the ref named <code>AUTO_MERGE</code>, which is written by the <em>ort</em> merge
881 strategy upon hitting merge conflicts (see <a href="git-merge.html">git-merge(1)</a>).
882 Comparing the working tree with <code>AUTO_MERGE</code> shows changes you&#8217;ve made
883 so far to resolve textual conflicts (see the examples below).</p></div>
884 <div class="paragraph"><p>For a more complete list of ways to spell &lt;commit&gt;, see
885 "SPECIFYING REVISIONS" section in <a href="gitrevisions.html">gitrevisions(7)</a>.
886 However, "diff" is about comparing two <em>endpoints</em>, not ranges,
887 and the range notations (<code>&lt;commit&gt;..&lt;commit&gt;</code> and
888 <code>&lt;commit&gt;...&lt;commit&gt;</code>) do not mean a range as defined in the
889 "SPECIFYING RANGES" section in <a href="gitrevisions.html">gitrevisions(7)</a>.</p></div>
890 <div class="dlist"><dl>
891 <dt class="hdlist1">
892 <em>git diff</em> [&lt;options&gt;] &lt;blob&gt; &lt;blob&gt;
893 </dt>
894 <dd>
896 This form is to view the differences between the raw
897 contents of two blob objects.
898 </p>
899 </dd>
900 </dl></div>
901 </div>
902 </div>
903 <div class="sect1">
904 <h2 id="_options">OPTIONS</h2>
905 <div class="sectionbody">
906 <div class="dlist"><dl>
907 <dt class="hdlist1">
909 </dt>
910 <dt class="hdlist1">
912 </dt>
913 <dt class="hdlist1">
914 --patch
915 </dt>
916 <dd>
918 Generate patch (see <a href="#generate_patch_text_with_p">[generate_patch_text_with_p]</a>).
919 This is the default.
920 </p>
921 </dd>
922 <dt class="hdlist1">
924 </dt>
925 <dt class="hdlist1">
926 --no-patch
927 </dt>
928 <dd>
930 Suppress all output from the diff machinery. Useful for
931 commands like <code>git show</code> that show the patch by default to
932 squelch their output, or to cancel the effect of options like
933 <code>--patch</code>, <code>--stat</code> earlier on the command line in an alias.
934 </p>
935 </dd>
936 <dt class="hdlist1">
937 -U&lt;n&gt;
938 </dt>
939 <dt class="hdlist1">
940 --unified=&lt;n&gt;
941 </dt>
942 <dd>
944 Generate diffs with &lt;n&gt; lines of context instead of
945 the usual three.
946 Implies <code>--patch</code>.
947 </p>
948 </dd>
949 <dt class="hdlist1">
950 --output=&lt;file&gt;
951 </dt>
952 <dd>
954 Output to a specific file instead of stdout.
955 </p>
956 </dd>
957 <dt class="hdlist1">
958 --output-indicator-new=&lt;char&gt;
959 </dt>
960 <dt class="hdlist1">
961 --output-indicator-old=&lt;char&gt;
962 </dt>
963 <dt class="hdlist1">
964 --output-indicator-context=&lt;char&gt;
965 </dt>
966 <dd>
968 Specify the character used to indicate new, old or context
969 lines in the generated patch. Normally they are <em>+</em>, <em>-</em> and
970 ' ' respectively.
971 </p>
972 </dd>
973 <dt class="hdlist1">
974 --raw
975 </dt>
976 <dd>
978 Generate the diff in raw format.
979 </p>
980 </dd>
981 <dt class="hdlist1">
982 --patch-with-raw
983 </dt>
984 <dd>
986 Synonym for <code>-p --raw</code>.
987 </p>
988 </dd>
989 <dt class="hdlist1">
990 --indent-heuristic
991 </dt>
992 <dd>
994 Enable the heuristic that shifts diff hunk boundaries to make patches
995 easier to read. This is the default.
996 </p>
997 </dd>
998 <dt class="hdlist1">
999 --no-indent-heuristic
1000 </dt>
1001 <dd>
1003 Disable the indent heuristic.
1004 </p>
1005 </dd>
1006 <dt class="hdlist1">
1007 --minimal
1008 </dt>
1009 <dd>
1011 Spend extra time to make sure the smallest possible
1012 diff is produced.
1013 </p>
1014 </dd>
1015 <dt class="hdlist1">
1016 --patience
1017 </dt>
1018 <dd>
1020 Generate a diff using the "patience diff" algorithm.
1021 </p>
1022 </dd>
1023 <dt class="hdlist1">
1024 --histogram
1025 </dt>
1026 <dd>
1028 Generate a diff using the "histogram diff" algorithm.
1029 </p>
1030 </dd>
1031 <dt class="hdlist1">
1032 --anchored=&lt;text&gt;
1033 </dt>
1034 <dd>
1036 Generate a diff using the "anchored diff" algorithm.
1037 </p>
1038 <div class="paragraph"><p>This option may be specified more than once.</p></div>
1039 <div class="paragraph"><p>If a line exists in both the source and destination, exists only once,
1040 and starts with this text, this algorithm attempts to prevent it from
1041 appearing as a deletion or addition in the output. It uses the "patience
1042 diff" algorithm internally.</p></div>
1043 </dd>
1044 <dt class="hdlist1">
1045 --diff-algorithm={patience|minimal|histogram|myers}
1046 </dt>
1047 <dd>
1049 Choose a diff algorithm. The variants are as follows:
1050 </p>
1051 <div class="openblock">
1052 <div class="content">
1053 <div class="dlist"><dl>
1054 <dt class="hdlist1">
1055 <code>default</code>, <code>myers</code>
1056 </dt>
1057 <dd>
1059 The basic greedy diff algorithm. Currently, this is the default.
1060 </p>
1061 </dd>
1062 <dt class="hdlist1">
1063 <code>minimal</code>
1064 </dt>
1065 <dd>
1067 Spend extra time to make sure the smallest possible diff is
1068 produced.
1069 </p>
1070 </dd>
1071 <dt class="hdlist1">
1072 <code>patience</code>
1073 </dt>
1074 <dd>
1076 Use "patience diff" algorithm when generating patches.
1077 </p>
1078 </dd>
1079 <dt class="hdlist1">
1080 <code>histogram</code>
1081 </dt>
1082 <dd>
1084 This algorithm extends the patience algorithm to "support
1085 low-occurrence common elements".
1086 </p>
1087 </dd>
1088 </dl></div>
1089 </div></div>
1090 <div class="paragraph"><p>For instance, if you configured the <code>diff.algorithm</code> variable to a
1091 non-default value and want to use the default one, then you
1092 have to use <code>--diff-algorithm=default</code> option.</p></div>
1093 </dd>
1094 <dt class="hdlist1">
1095 --stat[=&lt;width&gt;[,&lt;name-width&gt;[,&lt;count&gt;]]]
1096 </dt>
1097 <dd>
1099 Generate a diffstat. By default, as much space as necessary
1100 will be used for the filename part, and the rest for the graph
1101 part. Maximum width defaults to terminal width, or 80 columns
1102 if not connected to a terminal, and can be overridden by
1103 <code>&lt;width&gt;</code>. The width of the filename part can be limited by
1104 giving another width <code>&lt;name-width&gt;</code> after a comma or by setting
1105 <code>diff.statNameWidth=&lt;width&gt;</code>. The width of the graph part can be
1106 limited by using <code>--stat-graph-width=&lt;width&gt;</code> or by setting
1107 <code>diff.statGraphWidth=&lt;width&gt;</code>. Using <code>--stat</code> or
1108 <code>--stat-graph-width</code> affects all commands generating a stat graph,
1109 while setting <code>diff.statNameWidth</code> or <code>diff.statGraphWidth</code>
1110 does not affect <code>git format-patch</code>.
1111 By giving a third parameter <code>&lt;count&gt;</code>, you can limit the output to
1112 the first <code>&lt;count&gt;</code> lines, followed by <code>...</code> if there are more.
1113 </p>
1114 <div class="paragraph"><p>These parameters can also be set individually with <code>--stat-width=&lt;width&gt;</code>,
1115 <code>--stat-name-width=&lt;name-width&gt;</code> and <code>--stat-count=&lt;count&gt;</code>.</p></div>
1116 </dd>
1117 <dt class="hdlist1">
1118 --compact-summary
1119 </dt>
1120 <dd>
1122 Output a condensed summary of extended header information such
1123 as file creations or deletions ("new" or "gone", optionally "+l"
1124 if it&#8217;s a symlink) and mode changes ("+x" or "-x" for adding
1125 or removing executable bit respectively) in diffstat. The
1126 information is put between the filename part and the graph
1127 part. Implies <code>--stat</code>.
1128 </p>
1129 </dd>
1130 <dt class="hdlist1">
1131 --numstat
1132 </dt>
1133 <dd>
1135 Similar to <code>--stat</code>, but shows number of added and
1136 deleted lines in decimal notation and pathname without
1137 abbreviation, to make it more machine friendly. For
1138 binary files, outputs two <code>-</code> instead of saying
1139 <code>0 0</code>.
1140 </p>
1141 </dd>
1142 <dt class="hdlist1">
1143 --shortstat
1144 </dt>
1145 <dd>
1147 Output only the last line of the <code>--stat</code> format containing total
1148 number of modified files, as well as number of added and deleted
1149 lines.
1150 </p>
1151 </dd>
1152 <dt class="hdlist1">
1153 -X[&lt;param1,param2,&#8230;&gt;]
1154 </dt>
1155 <dt class="hdlist1">
1156 --dirstat[=&lt;param1,param2,&#8230;&gt;]
1157 </dt>
1158 <dd>
1160 Output the distribution of relative amount of changes for each
1161 sub-directory. The behavior of <code>--dirstat</code> can be customized by
1162 passing it a comma separated list of parameters.
1163 The defaults are controlled by the <code>diff.dirstat</code> configuration
1164 variable (see <a href="git-config.html">git-config(1)</a>).
1165 The following parameters are available:
1166 </p>
1167 <div class="openblock">
1168 <div class="content">
1169 <div class="dlist"><dl>
1170 <dt class="hdlist1">
1171 <code>changes</code>
1172 </dt>
1173 <dd>
1175 Compute the dirstat numbers by counting the lines that have been
1176 removed from the source, or added to the destination. This ignores
1177 the amount of pure code movements within a file. In other words,
1178 rearranging lines in a file is not counted as much as other changes.
1179 This is the default behavior when no parameter is given.
1180 </p>
1181 </dd>
1182 <dt class="hdlist1">
1183 <code>lines</code>
1184 </dt>
1185 <dd>
1187 Compute the dirstat numbers by doing the regular line-based diff
1188 analysis, and summing the removed/added line counts. (For binary
1189 files, count 64-byte chunks instead, since binary files have no
1190 natural concept of lines). This is a more expensive <code>--dirstat</code>
1191 behavior than the <code>changes</code> behavior, but it does count rearranged
1192 lines within a file as much as other changes. The resulting output
1193 is consistent with what you get from the other <code>--*stat</code> options.
1194 </p>
1195 </dd>
1196 <dt class="hdlist1">
1197 <code>files</code>
1198 </dt>
1199 <dd>
1201 Compute the dirstat numbers by counting the number of files changed.
1202 Each changed file counts equally in the dirstat analysis. This is
1203 the computationally cheapest <code>--dirstat</code> behavior, since it does
1204 not have to look at the file contents at all.
1205 </p>
1206 </dd>
1207 <dt class="hdlist1">
1208 <code>cumulative</code>
1209 </dt>
1210 <dd>
1212 Count changes in a child directory for the parent directory as well.
1213 Note that when using <code>cumulative</code>, the sum of the percentages
1214 reported may exceed 100%. The default (non-cumulative) behavior can
1215 be specified with the <code>noncumulative</code> parameter.
1216 </p>
1217 </dd>
1218 <dt class="hdlist1">
1219 &lt;limit&gt;
1220 </dt>
1221 <dd>
1223 An integer parameter specifies a cut-off percent (3% by default).
1224 Directories contributing less than this percentage of the changes
1225 are not shown in the output.
1226 </p>
1227 </dd>
1228 </dl></div>
1229 </div></div>
1230 <div class="paragraph"><p>Example: The following will count changed files, while ignoring
1231 directories with less than 10% of the total amount of changed files,
1232 and accumulating child directory counts in the parent directories:
1233 <code>--dirstat=files,10,cumulative</code>.</p></div>
1234 </dd>
1235 <dt class="hdlist1">
1236 --cumulative
1237 </dt>
1238 <dd>
1240 Synonym for --dirstat=cumulative
1241 </p>
1242 </dd>
1243 <dt class="hdlist1">
1244 --dirstat-by-file[=&lt;param1,param2&gt;&#8230;]
1245 </dt>
1246 <dd>
1248 Synonym for --dirstat=files,&lt;param1&gt;,&lt;param2&gt;&#8230;
1249 </p>
1250 </dd>
1251 <dt class="hdlist1">
1252 --summary
1253 </dt>
1254 <dd>
1256 Output a condensed summary of extended header information
1257 such as creations, renames and mode changes.
1258 </p>
1259 </dd>
1260 <dt class="hdlist1">
1261 --patch-with-stat
1262 </dt>
1263 <dd>
1265 Synonym for <code>-p --stat</code>.
1266 </p>
1267 </dd>
1268 <dt class="hdlist1">
1270 </dt>
1271 <dd>
1273 When <code>--raw</code>, <code>--numstat</code>, <code>--name-only</code> or <code>--name-status</code> has been
1274 given, do not munge pathnames and use NULs as output field terminators.
1275 </p>
1276 <div class="paragraph"><p>Without this option, pathnames with "unusual" characters are quoted as
1277 explained for the configuration variable <code>core.quotePath</code> (see
1278 <a href="git-config.html">git-config(1)</a>).</p></div>
1279 </dd>
1280 <dt class="hdlist1">
1281 --name-only
1282 </dt>
1283 <dd>
1285 Show only names of changed files. The file names are often encoded in UTF-8.
1286 For more information see the discussion about encoding in the <a href="git-log.html">git-log(1)</a>
1287 manual page.
1288 </p>
1289 </dd>
1290 <dt class="hdlist1">
1291 --name-status
1292 </dt>
1293 <dd>
1295 Show only names and status of changed files. See the description
1296 of the <code>--diff-filter</code> option on what the status letters mean.
1297 Just like <code>--name-only</code> the file names are often encoded in UTF-8.
1298 </p>
1299 </dd>
1300 <dt class="hdlist1">
1301 --submodule[=&lt;format&gt;]
1302 </dt>
1303 <dd>
1305 Specify how differences in submodules are shown. When specifying
1306 <code>--submodule=short</code> the <em>short</em> format is used. This format just
1307 shows the names of the commits at the beginning and end of the range.
1308 When <code>--submodule</code> or <code>--submodule=log</code> is specified, the <em>log</em>
1309 format is used. This format lists the commits in the range like
1310 <a href="git-submodule.html">git-submodule(1)</a> <code>summary</code> does. When <code>--submodule=diff</code>
1311 is specified, the <em>diff</em> format is used. This format shows an
1312 inline diff of the changes in the submodule contents between the
1313 commit range. Defaults to <code>diff.submodule</code> or the <em>short</em> format
1314 if the config option is unset.
1315 </p>
1316 </dd>
1317 <dt class="hdlist1">
1318 --color[=&lt;when&gt;]
1319 </dt>
1320 <dd>
1322 Show colored diff.
1323 <code>--color</code> (i.e. without <em>=&lt;when&gt;</em>) is the same as <code>--color=always</code>.
1324 <em>&lt;when&gt;</em> can be one of <code>always</code>, <code>never</code>, or <code>auto</code>.
1325 It can be changed by the <code>color.ui</code> and <code>color.diff</code>
1326 configuration settings.
1327 </p>
1328 </dd>
1329 <dt class="hdlist1">
1330 --no-color
1331 </dt>
1332 <dd>
1334 Turn off colored diff.
1335 This can be used to override configuration settings.
1336 It is the same as <code>--color=never</code>.
1337 </p>
1338 </dd>
1339 <dt class="hdlist1">
1340 --color-moved[=&lt;mode&gt;]
1341 </dt>
1342 <dd>
1344 Moved lines of code are colored differently.
1345 It can be changed by the <code>diff.colorMoved</code> configuration setting.
1346 The &lt;mode&gt; defaults to <em>no</em> if the option is not given
1347 and to <em>zebra</em> if the option with no mode is given.
1348 The mode must be one of:
1349 </p>
1350 <div class="openblock">
1351 <div class="content">
1352 <div class="dlist"><dl>
1353 <dt class="hdlist1">
1355 </dt>
1356 <dd>
1358 Moved lines are not highlighted.
1359 </p>
1360 </dd>
1361 <dt class="hdlist1">
1362 default
1363 </dt>
1364 <dd>
1366 Is a synonym for <code>zebra</code>. This may change to a more sensible mode
1367 in the future.
1368 </p>
1369 </dd>
1370 <dt class="hdlist1">
1371 plain
1372 </dt>
1373 <dd>
1375 Any line that is added in one location and was removed
1376 in another location will be colored with <em>color.diff.newMoved</em>.
1377 Similarly <em>color.diff.oldMoved</em> will be used for removed lines
1378 that are added somewhere else in the diff. This mode picks up any
1379 moved line, but it is not very useful in a review to determine
1380 if a block of code was moved without permutation.
1381 </p>
1382 </dd>
1383 <dt class="hdlist1">
1384 blocks
1385 </dt>
1386 <dd>
1388 Blocks of moved text of at least 20 alphanumeric characters
1389 are detected greedily. The detected blocks are
1390 painted using either the <em>color.diff.{old,new}Moved</em> color.
1391 Adjacent blocks cannot be told apart.
1392 </p>
1393 </dd>
1394 <dt class="hdlist1">
1395 zebra
1396 </dt>
1397 <dd>
1399 Blocks of moved text are detected as in <em>blocks</em> mode. The blocks
1400 are painted using either the <em>color.diff.{old,new}Moved</em> color or
1401 <em>color.diff.{old,new}MovedAlternative</em>. The change between
1402 the two colors indicates that a new block was detected.
1403 </p>
1404 </dd>
1405 <dt class="hdlist1">
1406 dimmed-zebra
1407 </dt>
1408 <dd>
1410 Similar to <em>zebra</em>, but additional dimming of uninteresting parts
1411 of moved code is performed. The bordering lines of two adjacent
1412 blocks are considered interesting, the rest is uninteresting.
1413 <code>dimmed_zebra</code> is a deprecated synonym.
1414 </p>
1415 </dd>
1416 </dl></div>
1417 </div></div>
1418 </dd>
1419 <dt class="hdlist1">
1420 --no-color-moved
1421 </dt>
1422 <dd>
1424 Turn off move detection. This can be used to override configuration
1425 settings. It is the same as <code>--color-moved=no</code>.
1426 </p>
1427 </dd>
1428 <dt class="hdlist1">
1429 --color-moved-ws=&lt;modes&gt;
1430 </dt>
1431 <dd>
1433 This configures how whitespace is ignored when performing the
1434 move detection for <code>--color-moved</code>.
1435 It can be set by the <code>diff.colorMovedWS</code> configuration setting.
1436 These modes can be given as a comma separated list:
1437 </p>
1438 <div class="openblock">
1439 <div class="content">
1440 <div class="dlist"><dl>
1441 <dt class="hdlist1">
1443 </dt>
1444 <dd>
1446 Do not ignore whitespace when performing move detection.
1447 </p>
1448 </dd>
1449 <dt class="hdlist1">
1450 ignore-space-at-eol
1451 </dt>
1452 <dd>
1454 Ignore changes in whitespace at EOL.
1455 </p>
1456 </dd>
1457 <dt class="hdlist1">
1458 ignore-space-change
1459 </dt>
1460 <dd>
1462 Ignore changes in amount of whitespace. This ignores whitespace
1463 at line end, and considers all other sequences of one or
1464 more whitespace characters to be equivalent.
1465 </p>
1466 </dd>
1467 <dt class="hdlist1">
1468 ignore-all-space
1469 </dt>
1470 <dd>
1472 Ignore whitespace when comparing lines. This ignores differences
1473 even if one line has whitespace where the other line has none.
1474 </p>
1475 </dd>
1476 <dt class="hdlist1">
1477 allow-indentation-change
1478 </dt>
1479 <dd>
1481 Initially ignore any whitespace in the move detection, then
1482 group the moved code blocks only into a block if the change in
1483 whitespace is the same per line. This is incompatible with the
1484 other modes.
1485 </p>
1486 </dd>
1487 </dl></div>
1488 </div></div>
1489 </dd>
1490 <dt class="hdlist1">
1491 --no-color-moved-ws
1492 </dt>
1493 <dd>
1495 Do not ignore whitespace when performing move detection. This can be
1496 used to override configuration settings. It is the same as
1497 <code>--color-moved-ws=no</code>.
1498 </p>
1499 </dd>
1500 <dt class="hdlist1">
1501 --word-diff[=&lt;mode&gt;]
1502 </dt>
1503 <dd>
1505 Show a word diff, using the &lt;mode&gt; to delimit changed words.
1506 By default, words are delimited by whitespace; see
1507 <code>--word-diff-regex</code> below. The &lt;mode&gt; defaults to <em>plain</em>, and
1508 must be one of:
1509 </p>
1510 <div class="openblock">
1511 <div class="content">
1512 <div class="dlist"><dl>
1513 <dt class="hdlist1">
1514 color
1515 </dt>
1516 <dd>
1518 Highlight changed words using only colors. Implies <code>--color</code>.
1519 </p>
1520 </dd>
1521 <dt class="hdlist1">
1522 plain
1523 </dt>
1524 <dd>
1526 Show words as <code>[-removed-]</code> and <code>{+added+}</code>. Makes no
1527 attempts to escape the delimiters if they appear in the input,
1528 so the output may be ambiguous.
1529 </p>
1530 </dd>
1531 <dt class="hdlist1">
1532 porcelain
1533 </dt>
1534 <dd>
1536 Use a special line-based format intended for script
1537 consumption. Added/removed/unchanged runs are printed in the
1538 usual unified diff format, starting with a <code>+</code>/<code>-</code>/` `
1539 character at the beginning of the line and extending to the
1540 end of the line. Newlines in the input are represented by a
1541 tilde <code>~</code> on a line of its own.
1542 </p>
1543 </dd>
1544 <dt class="hdlist1">
1545 none
1546 </dt>
1547 <dd>
1549 Disable word diff again.
1550 </p>
1551 </dd>
1552 </dl></div>
1553 </div></div>
1554 <div class="paragraph"><p>Note that despite the name of the first mode, color is used to
1555 highlight the changed parts in all modes if enabled.</p></div>
1556 </dd>
1557 <dt class="hdlist1">
1558 --word-diff-regex=&lt;regex&gt;
1559 </dt>
1560 <dd>
1562 Use &lt;regex&gt; to decide what a word is, instead of considering
1563 runs of non-whitespace to be a word. Also implies
1564 <code>--word-diff</code> unless it was already enabled.
1565 </p>
1566 <div class="paragraph"><p>Every non-overlapping match of the
1567 &lt;regex&gt; is considered a word. Anything between these matches is
1568 considered whitespace and ignored(!) for the purposes of finding
1569 differences. You may want to append <code>|[^[:space:]]</code> to your regular
1570 expression to make sure that it matches all non-whitespace characters.
1571 A match that contains a newline is silently truncated(!) at the
1572 newline.</p></div>
1573 <div class="paragraph"><p>For example, <code>--word-diff-regex=.</code> will treat each character as a word
1574 and, correspondingly, show differences character by character.</p></div>
1575 <div class="paragraph"><p>The regex can also be set via a diff driver or configuration option, see
1576 <a href="gitattributes.html">gitattributes(5)</a> or <a href="git-config.html">git-config(1)</a>. Giving it explicitly
1577 overrides any diff driver or configuration setting. Diff drivers
1578 override configuration settings.</p></div>
1579 </dd>
1580 <dt class="hdlist1">
1581 --color-words[=&lt;regex&gt;]
1582 </dt>
1583 <dd>
1585 Equivalent to <code>--word-diff=color</code> plus (if a regex was
1586 specified) <code>--word-diff-regex=&lt;regex&gt;</code>.
1587 </p>
1588 </dd>
1589 <dt class="hdlist1">
1590 --no-renames
1591 </dt>
1592 <dd>
1594 Turn off rename detection, even when the configuration
1595 file gives the default to do so.
1596 </p>
1597 </dd>
1598 <dt class="hdlist1">
1599 --[no-]rename-empty
1600 </dt>
1601 <dd>
1603 Whether to use empty blobs as rename source.
1604 </p>
1605 </dd>
1606 <dt class="hdlist1">
1607 --check
1608 </dt>
1609 <dd>
1611 Warn if changes introduce conflict markers or whitespace errors.
1612 What are considered whitespace errors is controlled by <code>core.whitespace</code>
1613 configuration. By default, trailing whitespaces (including
1614 lines that consist solely of whitespaces) and a space character
1615 that is immediately followed by a tab character inside the
1616 initial indent of the line are considered whitespace errors.
1617 Exits with non-zero status if problems are found. Not compatible
1618 with --exit-code.
1619 </p>
1620 </dd>
1621 <dt class="hdlist1">
1622 --ws-error-highlight=&lt;kind&gt;
1623 </dt>
1624 <dd>
1626 Highlight whitespace errors in the <code>context</code>, <code>old</code> or <code>new</code>
1627 lines of the diff. Multiple values are separated by comma,
1628 <code>none</code> resets previous values, <code>default</code> reset the list to
1629 <code>new</code> and <code>all</code> is a shorthand for <code>old,new,context</code>. When
1630 this option is not given, and the configuration variable
1631 <code>diff.wsErrorHighlight</code> is not set, only whitespace errors in
1632 <code>new</code> lines are highlighted. The whitespace errors are colored
1633 with <code>color.diff.whitespace</code>.
1634 </p>
1635 </dd>
1636 <dt class="hdlist1">
1637 --full-index
1638 </dt>
1639 <dd>
1641 Instead of the first handful of characters, show the full
1642 pre- and post-image blob object names on the "index"
1643 line when generating patch format output.
1644 </p>
1645 </dd>
1646 <dt class="hdlist1">
1647 --binary
1648 </dt>
1649 <dd>
1651 In addition to <code>--full-index</code>, output a binary diff that
1652 can be applied with <code>git-apply</code>.
1653 Implies <code>--patch</code>.
1654 </p>
1655 </dd>
1656 <dt class="hdlist1">
1657 --abbrev[=&lt;n&gt;]
1658 </dt>
1659 <dd>
1661 Instead of showing the full 40-byte hexadecimal object
1662 name in diff-raw format output and diff-tree header
1663 lines, show the shortest prefix that is at least <em>&lt;n&gt;</em>
1664 hexdigits long that uniquely refers the object.
1665 In diff-patch output format, <code>--full-index</code> takes higher
1666 precedence, i.e. if <code>--full-index</code> is specified, full blob
1667 names will be shown regardless of <code>--abbrev</code>.
1668 Non default number of digits can be specified with <code>--abbrev=&lt;n&gt;</code>.
1669 </p>
1670 </dd>
1671 <dt class="hdlist1">
1672 -B[&lt;n&gt;][/&lt;m&gt;]
1673 </dt>
1674 <dt class="hdlist1">
1675 --break-rewrites[=[&lt;n&gt;][/&lt;m&gt;]]
1676 </dt>
1677 <dd>
1679 Break complete rewrite changes into pairs of delete and
1680 create. This serves two purposes:
1681 </p>
1682 <div class="paragraph"><p>It affects the way a change that amounts to a total rewrite of a file
1683 not as a series of deletion and insertion mixed together with a very
1684 few lines that happen to match textually as the context, but as a
1685 single deletion of everything old followed by a single insertion of
1686 everything new, and the number <code>m</code> controls this aspect of the -B
1687 option (defaults to 60%). <code>-B/70%</code> specifies that less than 30% of the
1688 original should remain in the result for Git to consider it a total
1689 rewrite (i.e. otherwise the resulting patch will be a series of
1690 deletion and insertion mixed together with context lines).</p></div>
1691 <div class="paragraph"><p>When used with -M, a totally-rewritten file is also considered as the
1692 source of a rename (usually -M only considers a file that disappeared
1693 as the source of a rename), and the number <code>n</code> controls this aspect of
1694 the -B option (defaults to 50%). <code>-B20%</code> specifies that a change with
1695 addition and deletion compared to 20% or more of the file&#8217;s size are
1696 eligible for being picked up as a possible source of a rename to
1697 another file.</p></div>
1698 </dd>
1699 <dt class="hdlist1">
1700 -M[&lt;n&gt;]
1701 </dt>
1702 <dt class="hdlist1">
1703 --find-renames[=&lt;n&gt;]
1704 </dt>
1705 <dd>
1707 Detect renames.
1708 If <code>n</code> is specified, it is a threshold on the similarity
1709 index (i.e. amount of addition/deletions compared to the
1710 file&#8217;s size). For example, <code>-M90%</code> means Git should consider a
1711 delete/add pair to be a rename if more than 90% of the file
1712 hasn&#8217;t changed. Without a <code>%</code> sign, the number is to be read as
1713 a fraction, with a decimal point before it. I.e., <code>-M5</code> becomes
1714 0.5, and is thus the same as <code>-M50%</code>. Similarly, <code>-M05</code> is
1715 the same as <code>-M5%</code>. To limit detection to exact renames, use
1716 <code>-M100%</code>. The default similarity index is 50%.
1717 </p>
1718 </dd>
1719 <dt class="hdlist1">
1720 -C[&lt;n&gt;]
1721 </dt>
1722 <dt class="hdlist1">
1723 --find-copies[=&lt;n&gt;]
1724 </dt>
1725 <dd>
1727 Detect copies as well as renames. See also <code>--find-copies-harder</code>.
1728 If <code>n</code> is specified, it has the same meaning as for <code>-M&lt;n&gt;</code>.
1729 </p>
1730 </dd>
1731 <dt class="hdlist1">
1732 --find-copies-harder
1733 </dt>
1734 <dd>
1736 For performance reasons, by default, <code>-C</code> option finds copies only
1737 if the original file of the copy was modified in the same
1738 changeset. This flag makes the command
1739 inspect unmodified files as candidates for the source of
1740 copy. This is a very expensive operation for large
1741 projects, so use it with caution. Giving more than one
1742 <code>-C</code> option has the same effect.
1743 </p>
1744 </dd>
1745 <dt class="hdlist1">
1747 </dt>
1748 <dt class="hdlist1">
1749 --irreversible-delete
1750 </dt>
1751 <dd>
1753 Omit the preimage for deletes, i.e. print only the header but not
1754 the diff between the preimage and <code>/dev/null</code>. The resulting patch
1755 is not meant to be applied with <code>patch</code> or <code>git apply</code>; this is
1756 solely for people who want to just concentrate on reviewing the
1757 text after the change. In addition, the output obviously lacks
1758 enough information to apply such a patch in reverse, even manually,
1759 hence the name of the option.
1760 </p>
1761 <div class="paragraph"><p>When used together with <code>-B</code>, omit also the preimage in the deletion part
1762 of a delete/create pair.</p></div>
1763 </dd>
1764 <dt class="hdlist1">
1765 -l&lt;num&gt;
1766 </dt>
1767 <dd>
1769 The <code>-M</code> and <code>-C</code> options involve some preliminary steps that
1770 can detect subsets of renames/copies cheaply, followed by an
1771 exhaustive fallback portion that compares all remaining
1772 unpaired destinations to all relevant sources. (For renames,
1773 only remaining unpaired sources are relevant; for copies, all
1774 original sources are relevant.) For N sources and
1775 destinations, this exhaustive check is O(N^2). This option
1776 prevents the exhaustive portion of rename/copy detection from
1777 running if the number of source/destination files involved
1778 exceeds the specified number. Defaults to diff.renameLimit.
1779 Note that a value of 0 is treated as unlimited.
1780 </p>
1781 </dd>
1782 <dt class="hdlist1">
1783 --diff-filter=[(A|C|D|M|R|T|U|X|B)&#8230;[*]]
1784 </dt>
1785 <dd>
1787 Select only files that are Added (<code>A</code>), Copied (<code>C</code>),
1788 Deleted (<code>D</code>), Modified (<code>M</code>), Renamed (<code>R</code>), have their
1789 type (i.e. regular file, symlink, submodule, &#8230;) changed (<code>T</code>),
1790 are Unmerged (<code>U</code>), are
1791 Unknown (<code>X</code>), or have had their pairing Broken (<code>B</code>).
1792 Any combination of the filter characters (including none) can be used.
1793 When <code>*</code> (All-or-none) is added to the combination, all
1794 paths are selected if there is any file that matches
1795 other criteria in the comparison; if there is no file
1796 that matches other criteria, nothing is selected.
1797 </p>
1798 <div class="paragraph"><p>Also, these upper-case letters can be downcased to exclude. E.g.
1799 <code>--diff-filter=ad</code> excludes added and deleted paths.</p></div>
1800 <div class="paragraph"><p>Note that not all diffs can feature all types. For instance, copied and
1801 renamed entries cannot appear if detection for those types is disabled.</p></div>
1802 </dd>
1803 <dt class="hdlist1">
1804 -S&lt;string&gt;
1805 </dt>
1806 <dd>
1808 Look for differences that change the number of occurrences of
1809 the specified string (i.e. addition/deletion) in a file.
1810 Intended for the scripter&#8217;s use.
1811 </p>
1812 <div class="paragraph"><p>It is useful when you&#8217;re looking for an exact block of code (like a
1813 struct), and want to know the history of that block since it first
1814 came into being: use the feature iteratively to feed the interesting
1815 block in the preimage back into <code>-S</code>, and keep going until you get the
1816 very first version of the block.</p></div>
1817 <div class="paragraph"><p>Binary files are searched as well.</p></div>
1818 </dd>
1819 <dt class="hdlist1">
1820 -G&lt;regex&gt;
1821 </dt>
1822 <dd>
1824 Look for differences whose patch text contains added/removed
1825 lines that match &lt;regex&gt;.
1826 </p>
1827 <div class="paragraph"><p>To illustrate the difference between <code>-S&lt;regex&gt; --pickaxe-regex</code> and
1828 <code>-G&lt;regex&gt;</code>, consider a commit with the following diff in the same
1829 file:</p></div>
1830 <div class="listingblock">
1831 <div class="content">
1832 <pre><code>+ return frotz(nitfol, two-&gt;ptr, 1, 0);
1834 - hit = frotz(nitfol, mf2.ptr, 1, 0);</code></pre>
1835 </div></div>
1836 <div class="paragraph"><p>While <code>git log -G"frotz\(nitfol"</code> will show this commit, <code>git log
1837 -S"frotz\(nitfol" --pickaxe-regex</code> will not (because the number of
1838 occurrences of that string did not change).</p></div>
1839 <div class="paragraph"><p>Unless <code>--text</code> is supplied patches of binary files without a textconv
1840 filter will be ignored.</p></div>
1841 <div class="paragraph"><p>See the <em>pickaxe</em> entry in <a href="gitdiffcore.html">gitdiffcore(7)</a> for more
1842 information.</p></div>
1843 </dd>
1844 <dt class="hdlist1">
1845 --find-object=&lt;object-id&gt;
1846 </dt>
1847 <dd>
1849 Look for differences that change the number of occurrences of
1850 the specified object. Similar to <code>-S</code>, just the argument is different
1851 in that it doesn&#8217;t search for a specific string but for a specific
1852 object id.
1853 </p>
1854 <div class="paragraph"><p>The object can be a blob or a submodule commit. It implies the <code>-t</code> option in
1855 <code>git-log</code> to also find trees.</p></div>
1856 </dd>
1857 <dt class="hdlist1">
1858 --pickaxe-all
1859 </dt>
1860 <dd>
1862 When <code>-S</code> or <code>-G</code> finds a change, show all the changes in that
1863 changeset, not just the files that contain the change
1864 in &lt;string&gt;.
1865 </p>
1866 </dd>
1867 <dt class="hdlist1">
1868 --pickaxe-regex
1869 </dt>
1870 <dd>
1872 Treat the &lt;string&gt; given to <code>-S</code> as an extended POSIX regular
1873 expression to match.
1874 </p>
1875 </dd>
1876 <dt class="hdlist1">
1877 -O&lt;orderfile&gt;
1878 </dt>
1879 <dd>
1881 Control the order in which files appear in the output.
1882 This overrides the <code>diff.orderFile</code> configuration variable
1883 (see <a href="git-config.html">git-config(1)</a>). To cancel <code>diff.orderFile</code>,
1884 use <code>-O/dev/null</code>.
1885 </p>
1886 <div class="paragraph"><p>The output order is determined by the order of glob patterns in
1887 &lt;orderfile&gt;.
1888 All files with pathnames that match the first pattern are output
1889 first, all files with pathnames that match the second pattern (but not
1890 the first) are output next, and so on.
1891 All files with pathnames that do not match any pattern are output
1892 last, as if there was an implicit match-all pattern at the end of the
1893 file.
1894 If multiple pathnames have the same rank (they match the same pattern
1895 but no earlier patterns), their output order relative to each other is
1896 the normal order.</p></div>
1897 <div class="paragraph"><p>&lt;orderfile&gt; is parsed as follows:</p></div>
1898 <div class="openblock">
1899 <div class="content">
1900 <div class="ulist"><ul>
1901 <li>
1903 Blank lines are ignored, so they can be used as separators for
1904 readability.
1905 </p>
1906 </li>
1907 <li>
1909 Lines starting with a hash ("<code>#</code>") are ignored, so they can be used
1910 for comments. Add a backslash ("<code>\</code>") to the beginning of the
1911 pattern if it starts with a hash.
1912 </p>
1913 </li>
1914 <li>
1916 Each other line contains a single pattern.
1917 </p>
1918 </li>
1919 </ul></div>
1920 </div></div>
1921 <div class="paragraph"><p>Patterns have the same syntax and semantics as patterns used for
1922 fnmatch(3) without the FNM_PATHNAME flag, except a pathname also
1923 matches a pattern if removing any number of the final pathname
1924 components matches the pattern. For example, the pattern "<code>foo*bar</code>"
1925 matches "<code>fooasdfbar</code>" and "<code>foo/bar/baz/asdf</code>" but not "<code>foobarx</code>".</p></div>
1926 </dd>
1927 <dt class="hdlist1">
1928 --skip-to=&lt;file&gt;
1929 </dt>
1930 <dt class="hdlist1">
1931 --rotate-to=&lt;file&gt;
1932 </dt>
1933 <dd>
1935 Discard the files before the named &lt;file&gt; from the output
1936 (i.e. <em>skip to</em>), or move them to the end of the output
1937 (i.e. <em>rotate to</em>). These options were invented primarily for the use
1938 of the <code>git difftool</code> command, and may not be very useful
1939 otherwise.
1940 </p>
1941 </dd>
1942 <dt class="hdlist1">
1944 </dt>
1945 <dd>
1947 Swap two inputs; that is, show differences from index or
1948 on-disk file to tree contents.
1949 </p>
1950 </dd>
1951 <dt class="hdlist1">
1952 --relative[=&lt;path&gt;]
1953 </dt>
1954 <dt class="hdlist1">
1955 --no-relative
1956 </dt>
1957 <dd>
1959 When run from a subdirectory of the project, it can be
1960 told to exclude changes outside the directory and show
1961 pathnames relative to it with this option. When you are
1962 not in a subdirectory (e.g. in a bare repository), you
1963 can name which subdirectory to make the output relative
1964 to by giving a &lt;path&gt; as an argument.
1965 <code>--no-relative</code> can be used to countermand both <code>diff.relative</code> config
1966 option and previous <code>--relative</code>.
1967 </p>
1968 </dd>
1969 <dt class="hdlist1">
1971 </dt>
1972 <dt class="hdlist1">
1973 --text
1974 </dt>
1975 <dd>
1977 Treat all files as text.
1978 </p>
1979 </dd>
1980 <dt class="hdlist1">
1981 --ignore-cr-at-eol
1982 </dt>
1983 <dd>
1985 Ignore carriage-return at the end of line when doing a comparison.
1986 </p>
1987 </dd>
1988 <dt class="hdlist1">
1989 --ignore-space-at-eol
1990 </dt>
1991 <dd>
1993 Ignore changes in whitespace at EOL.
1994 </p>
1995 </dd>
1996 <dt class="hdlist1">
1998 </dt>
1999 <dt class="hdlist1">
2000 --ignore-space-change
2001 </dt>
2002 <dd>
2004 Ignore changes in amount of whitespace. This ignores whitespace
2005 at line end, and considers all other sequences of one or
2006 more whitespace characters to be equivalent.
2007 </p>
2008 </dd>
2009 <dt class="hdlist1">
2011 </dt>
2012 <dt class="hdlist1">
2013 --ignore-all-space
2014 </dt>
2015 <dd>
2017 Ignore whitespace when comparing lines. This ignores
2018 differences even if one line has whitespace where the other
2019 line has none.
2020 </p>
2021 </dd>
2022 <dt class="hdlist1">
2023 --ignore-blank-lines
2024 </dt>
2025 <dd>
2027 Ignore changes whose lines are all blank.
2028 </p>
2029 </dd>
2030 <dt class="hdlist1">
2031 -I&lt;regex&gt;
2032 </dt>
2033 <dt class="hdlist1">
2034 --ignore-matching-lines=&lt;regex&gt;
2035 </dt>
2036 <dd>
2038 Ignore changes whose all lines match &lt;regex&gt;. This option may
2039 be specified more than once.
2040 </p>
2041 </dd>
2042 <dt class="hdlist1">
2043 --inter-hunk-context=&lt;lines&gt;
2044 </dt>
2045 <dd>
2047 Show the context between diff hunks, up to the specified number
2048 of lines, thereby fusing hunks that are close to each other.
2049 Defaults to <code>diff.interHunkContext</code> or 0 if the config option
2050 is unset.
2051 </p>
2052 </dd>
2053 <dt class="hdlist1">
2055 </dt>
2056 <dt class="hdlist1">
2057 --function-context
2058 </dt>
2059 <dd>
2061 Show whole function as context lines for each change.
2062 The function names are determined in the same way as
2063 <code>git diff</code> works out patch hunk headers (see <em>Defining a
2064 custom hunk-header</em> in <a href="gitattributes.html">gitattributes(5)</a>).
2065 </p>
2066 </dd>
2067 <dt class="hdlist1">
2068 --exit-code
2069 </dt>
2070 <dd>
2072 Make the program exit with codes similar to diff(1).
2073 That is, it exits with 1 if there were differences and
2074 0 means no differences.
2075 </p>
2076 </dd>
2077 <dt class="hdlist1">
2078 --quiet
2079 </dt>
2080 <dd>
2082 Disable all output of the program. Implies <code>--exit-code</code>.
2083 </p>
2084 </dd>
2085 <dt class="hdlist1">
2086 --ext-diff
2087 </dt>
2088 <dd>
2090 Allow an external diff helper to be executed. If you set an
2091 external diff driver with <a href="gitattributes.html">gitattributes(5)</a>, you need
2092 to use this option with <a href="git-log.html">git-log(1)</a> and friends.
2093 </p>
2094 </dd>
2095 <dt class="hdlist1">
2096 --no-ext-diff
2097 </dt>
2098 <dd>
2100 Disallow external diff drivers.
2101 </p>
2102 </dd>
2103 <dt class="hdlist1">
2104 --textconv
2105 </dt>
2106 <dt class="hdlist1">
2107 --no-textconv
2108 </dt>
2109 <dd>
2111 Allow (or disallow) external text conversion filters to be run
2112 when comparing binary files. See <a href="gitattributes.html">gitattributes(5)</a> for
2113 details. Because textconv filters are typically a one-way
2114 conversion, the resulting diff is suitable for human
2115 consumption, but cannot be applied. For this reason, textconv
2116 filters are enabled by default only for <a href="git-diff.html">git-diff(1)</a> and
2117 <a href="git-log.html">git-log(1)</a>, but not for <a href="git-format-patch.html">git-format-patch(1)</a> or
2118 diff plumbing commands.
2119 </p>
2120 </dd>
2121 <dt class="hdlist1">
2122 --ignore-submodules[=&lt;when&gt;]
2123 </dt>
2124 <dd>
2126 Ignore changes to submodules in the diff generation. &lt;when&gt; can be
2127 either "none", "untracked", "dirty" or "all", which is the default.
2128 Using "none" will consider the submodule modified when it either contains
2129 untracked or modified files or its HEAD differs from the commit recorded
2130 in the superproject and can be used to override any settings of the
2131 <em>ignore</em> option in <a href="git-config.html">git-config(1)</a> or <a href="gitmodules.html">gitmodules(5)</a>. When
2132 "untracked" is used submodules are not considered dirty when they only
2133 contain untracked content (but they are still scanned for modified
2134 content). Using "dirty" ignores all changes to the work tree of submodules,
2135 only changes to the commits stored in the superproject are shown (this was
2136 the behavior until 1.7.0). Using "all" hides all changes to submodules.
2137 </p>
2138 </dd>
2139 <dt class="hdlist1">
2140 --src-prefix=&lt;prefix&gt;
2141 </dt>
2142 <dd>
2144 Show the given source prefix instead of "a/".
2145 </p>
2146 </dd>
2147 <dt class="hdlist1">
2148 --dst-prefix=&lt;prefix&gt;
2149 </dt>
2150 <dd>
2152 Show the given destination prefix instead of "b/".
2153 </p>
2154 </dd>
2155 <dt class="hdlist1">
2156 --no-prefix
2157 </dt>
2158 <dd>
2160 Do not show any source or destination prefix.
2161 </p>
2162 </dd>
2163 <dt class="hdlist1">
2164 --default-prefix
2165 </dt>
2166 <dd>
2168 Use the default source and destination prefixes ("a/" and "b/").
2169 This overrides configuration variables such as <code>diff.noprefix</code>,
2170 <code>diff.srcPrefix</code>, <code>diff.dstPrefix</code>, and <code>diff.mnemonicPrefix</code>
2171 (see <code>git-config</code>(1)).
2172 </p>
2173 </dd>
2174 <dt class="hdlist1">
2175 --line-prefix=&lt;prefix&gt;
2176 </dt>
2177 <dd>
2179 Prepend an additional prefix to every line of output.
2180 </p>
2181 </dd>
2182 <dt class="hdlist1">
2183 --ita-invisible-in-index
2184 </dt>
2185 <dd>
2187 By default entries added by "git add -N" appear as an existing
2188 empty file in "git diff" and a new file in "git diff --cached".
2189 This option makes the entry appear as a new file in "git diff"
2190 and non-existent in "git diff --cached". This option could be
2191 reverted with <code>--ita-visible-in-index</code>. Both options are
2192 experimental and could be removed in future.
2193 </p>
2194 </dd>
2195 </dl></div>
2196 <div class="paragraph"><p>For more detailed explanation on these common options, see also
2197 <a href="gitdiffcore.html">gitdiffcore(7)</a>.</p></div>
2198 <div class="dlist"><dl>
2199 <dt class="hdlist1">
2200 -1 --base
2201 </dt>
2202 <dt class="hdlist1">
2203 -2 --ours
2204 </dt>
2205 <dt class="hdlist1">
2206 -3 --theirs
2207 </dt>
2208 <dd>
2210 Compare the working tree with the "base" version (stage #1),
2211 "our branch" (stage #2) or "their branch" (stage #3). The
2212 index contains these stages only for unmerged entries i.e.
2213 while resolving conflicts. See <a href="git-read-tree.html">git-read-tree(1)</a>
2214 section "3-Way Merge" for detailed information.
2215 </p>
2216 </dd>
2217 <dt class="hdlist1">
2219 </dt>
2220 <dd>
2222 Omit diff output for unmerged entries and just show
2223 "Unmerged". Can be used only when comparing the working tree
2224 with the index.
2225 </p>
2226 </dd>
2227 <dt class="hdlist1">
2228 &lt;path&gt;&#8230;
2229 </dt>
2230 <dd>
2232 The &lt;paths&gt; parameters, when given, are used to limit
2233 the diff to the named paths (you can give directory
2234 names and get diff for all files under them).
2235 </p>
2236 </dd>
2237 </dl></div>
2238 </div>
2239 </div>
2240 <div class="sect1">
2241 <h2 id="_raw_output_format">Raw output format</h2>
2242 <div class="sectionbody">
2243 <div class="paragraph"><p>The raw output format from "git-diff-index", "git-diff-tree",
2244 "git-diff-files" and "git diff --raw" are very similar.</p></div>
2245 <div class="paragraph"><p>These commands all compare two sets of things; what is
2246 compared differs:</p></div>
2247 <div class="dlist"><dl>
2248 <dt class="hdlist1">
2249 git-diff-index &lt;tree-ish&gt;
2250 </dt>
2251 <dd>
2253 compares the &lt;tree-ish&gt; and the files on the filesystem.
2254 </p>
2255 </dd>
2256 <dt class="hdlist1">
2257 git-diff-index --cached &lt;tree-ish&gt;
2258 </dt>
2259 <dd>
2261 compares the &lt;tree-ish&gt; and the index.
2262 </p>
2263 </dd>
2264 <dt class="hdlist1">
2265 git-diff-tree [-r] &lt;tree-ish-1&gt; &lt;tree-ish-2&gt; [&lt;pattern&gt;&#8230;]
2266 </dt>
2267 <dd>
2269 compares the trees named by the two arguments.
2270 </p>
2271 </dd>
2272 <dt class="hdlist1">
2273 git-diff-files [&lt;pattern&gt;&#8230;]
2274 </dt>
2275 <dd>
2277 compares the index and the files on the filesystem.
2278 </p>
2279 </dd>
2280 </dl></div>
2281 <div class="paragraph"><p>The "git-diff-tree" command begins its output by printing the hash of
2282 what is being compared. After that, all the commands print one output
2283 line per changed file.</p></div>
2284 <div class="paragraph"><p>An output line is formatted this way:</p></div>
2285 <div class="listingblock">
2286 <div class="content">
2287 <pre><code>in-place edit :100644 100644 bcd1234 0123456 M file0
2288 copy-edit :100644 100644 abcd123 1234567 C68 file1 file2
2289 rename-edit :100644 100644 abcd123 1234567 R86 file1 file3
2290 create :000000 100644 0000000 1234567 A file4
2291 delete :100644 000000 1234567 0000000 D file5
2292 unmerged :000000 000000 0000000 0000000 U file6</code></pre>
2293 </div></div>
2294 <div class="paragraph"><p>That is, from the left to the right:</p></div>
2295 <div class="olist arabic"><ol class="arabic">
2296 <li>
2298 a colon.
2299 </p>
2300 </li>
2301 <li>
2303 mode for "src"; 000000 if creation or unmerged.
2304 </p>
2305 </li>
2306 <li>
2308 a space.
2309 </p>
2310 </li>
2311 <li>
2313 mode for "dst"; 000000 if deletion or unmerged.
2314 </p>
2315 </li>
2316 <li>
2318 a space.
2319 </p>
2320 </li>
2321 <li>
2323 sha1 for "src"; 0{40} if creation or unmerged.
2324 </p>
2325 </li>
2326 <li>
2328 a space.
2329 </p>
2330 </li>
2331 <li>
2333 sha1 for "dst"; 0{40} if deletion, unmerged or "work tree out of sync with the index".
2334 </p>
2335 </li>
2336 <li>
2338 a space.
2339 </p>
2340 </li>
2341 <li>
2343 status, followed by optional "score" number.
2344 </p>
2345 </li>
2346 <li>
2348 a tab or a NUL when <code>-z</code> option is used.
2349 </p>
2350 </li>
2351 <li>
2353 path for "src"
2354 </p>
2355 </li>
2356 <li>
2358 a tab or a NUL when <code>-z</code> option is used; only exists for C or R.
2359 </p>
2360 </li>
2361 <li>
2363 path for "dst"; only exists for C or R.
2364 </p>
2365 </li>
2366 <li>
2368 an LF or a NUL when <code>-z</code> option is used, to terminate the record.
2369 </p>
2370 </li>
2371 </ol></div>
2372 <div class="paragraph"><p>Possible status letters are:</p></div>
2373 <div class="ulist"><ul>
2374 <li>
2376 A: addition of a file
2377 </p>
2378 </li>
2379 <li>
2381 C: copy of a file into a new one
2382 </p>
2383 </li>
2384 <li>
2386 D: deletion of a file
2387 </p>
2388 </li>
2389 <li>
2391 M: modification of the contents or mode of a file
2392 </p>
2393 </li>
2394 <li>
2396 R: renaming of a file
2397 </p>
2398 </li>
2399 <li>
2401 T: change in the type of the file (regular file, symbolic link or submodule)
2402 </p>
2403 </li>
2404 <li>
2406 U: file is unmerged (you must complete the merge before it can
2407 be committed)
2408 </p>
2409 </li>
2410 <li>
2412 X: "unknown" change type (most probably a bug, please report it)
2413 </p>
2414 </li>
2415 </ul></div>
2416 <div class="paragraph"><p>Status letters C and R are always followed by a score (denoting the
2417 percentage of similarity between the source and target of the move or
2418 copy). Status letter M may be followed by a score (denoting the
2419 percentage of dissimilarity) for file rewrites.</p></div>
2420 <div class="paragraph"><p>The sha1 for "dst" is shown as all 0&#8217;s if a file on the filesystem
2421 is out of sync with the index.</p></div>
2422 <div class="paragraph"><p>Example:</p></div>
2423 <div class="listingblock">
2424 <div class="content">
2425 <pre><code>:100644 100644 5be4a4a 0000000 M file.c</code></pre>
2426 </div></div>
2427 <div class="paragraph"><p>Without the <code>-z</code> option, pathnames with "unusual" characters are
2428 quoted as explained for the configuration variable <code>core.quotePath</code>
2429 (see <a href="git-config.html">git-config(1)</a>). Using <code>-z</code> the filename is output
2430 verbatim and the line is terminated by a NUL byte.</p></div>
2431 </div>
2432 </div>
2433 <div class="sect1">
2434 <h2 id="_diff_format_for_merges">diff format for merges</h2>
2435 <div class="sectionbody">
2436 <div class="paragraph"><p>"git-diff-tree", "git-diff-files" and "git-diff --raw"
2437 can take <code>-c</code> or <code>--cc</code> option
2438 to generate diff output also for merge commits. The output differs
2439 from the format described above in the following way:</p></div>
2440 <div class="olist arabic"><ol class="arabic">
2441 <li>
2443 there is a colon for each parent
2444 </p>
2445 </li>
2446 <li>
2448 there are more "src" modes and "src" sha1
2449 </p>
2450 </li>
2451 <li>
2453 status is concatenated status characters for each parent
2454 </p>
2455 </li>
2456 <li>
2458 no optional "score" number
2459 </p>
2460 </li>
2461 <li>
2463 tab-separated pathname(s) of the file
2464 </p>
2465 </li>
2466 </ol></div>
2467 <div class="paragraph"><p>For <code>-c</code> and <code>--cc</code>, only the destination or final path is shown even
2468 if the file was renamed on any side of history. With
2469 <code>--combined-all-paths</code>, the name of the path in each parent is shown
2470 followed by the name of the path in the merge commit.</p></div>
2471 <div class="paragraph"><p>Examples for <code>-c</code> and <code>--cc</code> without <code>--combined-all-paths</code>:</p></div>
2472 <div class="listingblock">
2473 <div class="content">
2474 <pre><code>::100644 100644 100644 fabadb8 cc95eb0 4866510 MM desc.c
2475 ::100755 100755 100755 52b7a2d 6d1ac04 d2ac7d7 RM bar.sh
2476 ::100644 100644 100644 e07d6c5 9042e82 ee91881 RR phooey.c</code></pre>
2477 </div></div>
2478 <div class="paragraph"><p>Examples when <code>--combined-all-paths</code> added to either <code>-c</code> or <code>--cc</code>:</p></div>
2479 <div class="listingblock">
2480 <div class="content">
2481 <pre><code>::100644 100644 100644 fabadb8 cc95eb0 4866510 MM desc.c desc.c desc.c
2482 ::100755 100755 100755 52b7a2d 6d1ac04 d2ac7d7 RM foo.sh bar.sh bar.sh
2483 ::100644 100644 100644 e07d6c5 9042e82 ee91881 RR fooey.c fuey.c phooey.c</code></pre>
2484 </div></div>
2485 <div class="paragraph"><p>Note that <em>combined diff</em> lists only files which were modified from
2486 all parents.</p></div>
2487 </div>
2488 </div>
2489 <div class="sect1">
2490 <h2 id="generate_patch_text_with_p">Generating patch text with -p</h2>
2491 <div class="sectionbody">
2492 <div class="paragraph"><p>Running
2493 <a href="git-diff.html">git-diff(1)</a>,
2494 <a href="git-log.html">git-log(1)</a>,
2495 <a href="git-show.html">git-show(1)</a>,
2496 <a href="git-diff-index.html">git-diff-index(1)</a>,
2497 <a href="git-diff-tree.html">git-diff-tree(1)</a>, or
2498 <a href="git-diff-files.html">git-diff-files(1)</a>
2499 with the <code>-p</code> option produces patch text.
2500 You can customize the creation of patch text via the
2501 <code>GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF</code> and the <code>GIT_DIFF_OPTS</code> environment variables
2502 (see <a href="git.html">git(1)</a>), and the <code>diff</code> attribute (see <a href="gitattributes.html">gitattributes(5)</a>).</p></div>
2503 <div class="paragraph"><p>What the -p option produces is slightly different from the traditional
2504 diff format:</p></div>
2505 <div class="olist arabic"><ol class="arabic">
2506 <li>
2508 It is preceded by a "git diff" header that looks like this:
2509 </p>
2510 <div class="literalblock">
2511 <div class="content">
2512 <pre><code>diff --git a/file1 b/file2</code></pre>
2513 </div></div>
2514 <div class="paragraph"><p>The <code>a/</code> and <code>b/</code> filenames are the same unless rename/copy is
2515 involved. Especially, even for a creation or a deletion,
2516 <code>/dev/null</code> is <em>not</em> used in place of the <code>a/</code> or <code>b/</code> filenames.</p></div>
2517 <div class="paragraph"><p>When a rename/copy is involved, <code>file1</code> and <code>file2</code> show the
2518 name of the source file of the rename/copy and the name of
2519 the file that the rename/copy produces, respectively.</p></div>
2520 </li>
2521 <li>
2523 It is followed by one or more extended header lines:
2524 </p>
2525 <div class="literalblock">
2526 <div class="content">
2527 <pre><code>old mode &lt;mode&gt;
2528 new mode &lt;mode&gt;
2529 deleted file mode &lt;mode&gt;
2530 new file mode &lt;mode&gt;
2531 copy from &lt;path&gt;
2532 copy to &lt;path&gt;
2533 rename from &lt;path&gt;
2534 rename to &lt;path&gt;
2535 similarity index &lt;number&gt;
2536 dissimilarity index &lt;number&gt;
2537 index &lt;hash&gt;..&lt;hash&gt; &lt;mode&gt;</code></pre>
2538 </div></div>
2539 <div class="paragraph"><p>File modes are printed as 6-digit octal numbers including the file type
2540 and file permission bits.</p></div>
2541 <div class="paragraph"><p>Path names in extended headers do not include the <code>a/</code> and <code>b/</code> prefixes.</p></div>
2542 <div class="paragraph"><p>The similarity index is the percentage of unchanged lines, and
2543 the dissimilarity index is the percentage of changed lines. It
2544 is a rounded down integer, followed by a percent sign. The
2545 similarity index value of 100% is thus reserved for two equal
2546 files, while 100% dissimilarity means that no line from the old
2547 file made it into the new one.</p></div>
2548 <div class="paragraph"><p>The index line includes the blob object names before and after the change.
2549 The &lt;mode&gt; is included if the file mode does not change; otherwise,
2550 separate lines indicate the old and the new mode.</p></div>
2551 </li>
2552 <li>
2554 Pathnames with "unusual" characters are quoted as explained for
2555 the configuration variable <code>core.quotePath</code> (see
2556 <a href="git-config.html">git-config(1)</a>).
2557 </p>
2558 </li>
2559 <li>
2561 All the <code>file1</code> files in the output refer to files before the
2562 commit, and all the <code>file2</code> files refer to files after the commit.
2563 It is incorrect to apply each change to each file sequentially. For
2564 example, this patch will swap a and b:
2565 </p>
2566 <div class="literalblock">
2567 <div class="content">
2568 <pre><code>diff --git a/a b/b
2569 rename from a
2570 rename to b
2571 diff --git a/b b/a
2572 rename from b
2573 rename to a</code></pre>
2574 </div></div>
2575 </li>
2576 <li>
2578 Hunk headers mention the name of the function to which the hunk
2579 applies. See "Defining a custom hunk-header" in
2580 <a href="gitattributes.html">gitattributes(5)</a> for details of how to tailor this to
2581 specific languages.
2582 </p>
2583 </li>
2584 </ol></div>
2585 </div>
2586 </div>
2587 <div class="sect1">
2588 <h2 id="_combined_diff_format">Combined diff format</h2>
2589 <div class="sectionbody">
2590 <div class="paragraph"><p>Any diff-generating command can take the <code>-c</code> or <code>--cc</code> option to
2591 produce a <em>combined diff</em> when showing a merge. This is the default
2592 format when showing merges with <a href="git-diff.html">git-diff(1)</a> or
2593 <a href="git-show.html">git-show(1)</a>. Note also that you can give suitable
2594 <code>--diff-merges</code> option to any of these commands to force generation of
2595 diffs in a specific format.</p></div>
2596 <div class="paragraph"><p>A "combined diff" format looks like this:</p></div>
2597 <div class="listingblock">
2598 <div class="content">
2599 <pre><code>diff --combined describe.c
2600 index fabadb8,cc95eb0..4866510
2601 --- a/describe.c
2602 +++ b/describe.c
2603 @@@ -98,20 -98,12 +98,20 @@@
2604 return (a_date &gt; b_date) ? -1 : (a_date == b_date) ? 0 : 1;
2607 - static void describe(char *arg)
2608 -static void describe(struct commit *cmit, int last_one)
2609 ++static void describe(char *arg, int last_one)
2611 + unsigned char sha1[20];
2612 + struct commit *cmit;
2613 struct commit_list *list;
2614 static int initialized = 0;
2615 struct commit_name *n;
2617 + if (get_sha1(arg, sha1) &lt; 0)
2618 + usage(describe_usage);
2619 + cmit = lookup_commit_reference(sha1);
2620 + if (!cmit)
2621 + usage(describe_usage);
2623 if (!initialized) {
2624 initialized = 1;
2625 for_each_ref(get_name);</code></pre>
2626 </div></div>
2627 <div class="olist arabic"><ol class="arabic">
2628 <li>
2630 It is preceded by a "git diff" header, that looks like
2631 this (when the <code>-c</code> option is used):
2632 </p>
2633 <div class="literalblock">
2634 <div class="content">
2635 <pre><code>diff --combined file</code></pre>
2636 </div></div>
2637 <div class="paragraph"><p>or like this (when the <code>--cc</code> option is used):</p></div>
2638 <div class="literalblock">
2639 <div class="content">
2640 <pre><code>diff --cc file</code></pre>
2641 </div></div>
2642 </li>
2643 <li>
2645 It is followed by one or more extended header lines
2646 (this example shows a merge with two parents):
2647 </p>
2648 <div class="literalblock">
2649 <div class="content">
2650 <pre><code>index &lt;hash&gt;,&lt;hash&gt;..&lt;hash&gt;
2651 mode &lt;mode&gt;,&lt;mode&gt;..&lt;mode&gt;
2652 new file mode &lt;mode&gt;
2653 deleted file mode &lt;mode&gt;,&lt;mode&gt;</code></pre>
2654 </div></div>
2655 <div class="paragraph"><p>The <code>mode &lt;mode&gt;,&lt;mode&gt;..&lt;mode&gt;</code> line appears only if at least one of
2656 the &lt;mode&gt; is different from the rest. Extended headers with
2657 information about detected content movement (renames and
2658 copying detection) are designed to work with the diff of two
2659 &lt;tree-ish&gt; and are not used by combined diff format.</p></div>
2660 </li>
2661 <li>
2663 It is followed by a two-line from-file/to-file header:
2664 </p>
2665 <div class="literalblock">
2666 <div class="content">
2667 <pre><code>--- a/file
2668 +++ b/file</code></pre>
2669 </div></div>
2670 <div class="paragraph"><p>Similar to the two-line header for the traditional <em>unified</em> diff
2671 format, <code>/dev/null</code> is used to signal created or deleted
2672 files.</p></div>
2673 <div class="paragraph"><p>However, if the --combined-all-paths option is provided, instead of a
2674 two-line from-file/to-file, you get an N+1 line from-file/to-file header,
2675 where N is the number of parents in the merge commit:</p></div>
2676 <div class="literalblock">
2677 <div class="content">
2678 <pre><code>--- a/file
2679 --- a/file
2680 --- a/file
2681 +++ b/file</code></pre>
2682 </div></div>
2683 <div class="paragraph"><p>This extended format can be useful if rename or copy detection is
2684 active, to allow you to see the original name of the file in different
2685 parents.</p></div>
2686 </li>
2687 <li>
2689 Chunk header format is modified to prevent people from
2690 accidentally feeding it to <code>patch -p1</code>. Combined diff format
2691 was created for review of merge commit changes, and was not
2692 meant to be applied. The change is similar to the change in the
2693 extended <em>index</em> header:
2694 </p>
2695 <div class="literalblock">
2696 <div class="content">
2697 <pre><code>@@@ &lt;from-file-range&gt; &lt;from-file-range&gt; &lt;to-file-range&gt; @@@</code></pre>
2698 </div></div>
2699 <div class="paragraph"><p>There are (number of parents + 1) <code>@</code> characters in the chunk
2700 header for combined diff format.</p></div>
2701 </li>
2702 </ol></div>
2703 <div class="paragraph"><p>Unlike the traditional <em>unified</em> diff format, which shows two
2704 files A and B with a single column that has <code>-</code> (minus&#8201;&#8212;&#8201;appears in A but removed in B), <code>+</code> (plus&#8201;&#8212;&#8201;missing in A but
2705 added to B), or <code>" "</code> (space&#8201;&#8212;&#8201;unchanged) prefix, this format
2706 compares two or more files file1, file2,&#8230; with one file X, and
2707 shows how X differs from each of fileN. One column for each of
2708 fileN is prepended to the output line to note how X&#8217;s line is
2709 different from it.</p></div>
2710 <div class="paragraph"><p>A <code>-</code> character in the column N means that the line appears in
2711 fileN but it does not appear in the result. A <code>+</code> character
2712 in the column N means that the line appears in the result,
2713 and fileN does not have that line (in other words, the line was
2714 added, from the point of view of that parent).</p></div>
2715 <div class="paragraph"><p>In the above example output, the function signature was changed
2716 from both files (hence two <code>-</code> removals from both file1 and
2717 file2, plus <code>++</code> to mean one line that was added does not appear
2718 in either file1 or file2). Also, eight other lines are the same
2719 from file1 but do not appear in file2 (hence prefixed with <code>+</code>).</p></div>
2720 <div class="paragraph"><p>When shown by <code>git diff-tree -c</code>, it compares the parents of a
2721 merge commit with the merge result (i.e. file1..fileN are the
2722 parents). When shown by <code>git diff-files -c</code>, it compares the
2723 two unresolved merge parents with the working tree file
2724 (i.e. file1 is stage 2 aka "our version", file2 is stage 3 aka
2725 "their version").</p></div>
2726 </div>
2727 </div>
2728 <div class="sect1">
2729 <h2 id="_other_diff_formats">other diff formats</h2>
2730 <div class="sectionbody">
2731 <div class="paragraph"><p>The <code>--summary</code> option describes newly added, deleted, renamed and
2732 copied files. The <code>--stat</code> option adds diffstat(1) graph to the
2733 output. These options can be combined with other options, such as
2734 <code>-p</code>, and are meant for human consumption.</p></div>
2735 <div class="paragraph"><p>When showing a change that involves a rename or a copy, <code>--stat</code> output
2736 formats the pathnames compactly by combining common prefix and suffix of
2737 the pathnames. For example, a change that moves <code>arch/i386/Makefile</code> to
2738 <code>arch/x86/Makefile</code> while modifying 4 lines will be shown like this:</p></div>
2739 <div class="listingblock">
2740 <div class="content">
2741 <pre><code>arch/{i386 =&gt; x86}/Makefile | 4 +--</code></pre>
2742 </div></div>
2743 <div class="paragraph"><p>The <code>--numstat</code> option gives the diffstat(1) information but is designed
2744 for easier machine consumption. An entry in <code>--numstat</code> output looks
2745 like this:</p></div>
2746 <div class="listingblock">
2747 <div class="content">
2748 <pre><code>1 2 README
2749 3 1 arch/{i386 =&gt; x86}/Makefile</code></pre>
2750 </div></div>
2751 <div class="paragraph"><p>That is, from left to right:</p></div>
2752 <div class="olist arabic"><ol class="arabic">
2753 <li>
2755 the number of added lines;
2756 </p>
2757 </li>
2758 <li>
2760 a tab;
2761 </p>
2762 </li>
2763 <li>
2765 the number of deleted lines;
2766 </p>
2767 </li>
2768 <li>
2770 a tab;
2771 </p>
2772 </li>
2773 <li>
2775 pathname (possibly with rename/copy information);
2776 </p>
2777 </li>
2778 <li>
2780 a newline.
2781 </p>
2782 </li>
2783 </ol></div>
2784 <div class="paragraph"><p>When <code>-z</code> output option is in effect, the output is formatted this way:</p></div>
2785 <div class="listingblock">
2786 <div class="content">
2787 <pre><code>1 2 README NUL
2788 3 1 NUL arch/i386/Makefile NUL arch/x86/Makefile NUL</code></pre>
2789 </div></div>
2790 <div class="paragraph"><p>That is:</p></div>
2791 <div class="olist arabic"><ol class="arabic">
2792 <li>
2794 the number of added lines;
2795 </p>
2796 </li>
2797 <li>
2799 a tab;
2800 </p>
2801 </li>
2802 <li>
2804 the number of deleted lines;
2805 </p>
2806 </li>
2807 <li>
2809 a tab;
2810 </p>
2811 </li>
2812 <li>
2814 a NUL (only exists if renamed/copied);
2815 </p>
2816 </li>
2817 <li>
2819 pathname in preimage;
2820 </p>
2821 </li>
2822 <li>
2824 a NUL (only exists if renamed/copied);
2825 </p>
2826 </li>
2827 <li>
2829 pathname in postimage (only exists if renamed/copied);
2830 </p>
2831 </li>
2832 <li>
2834 a NUL.
2835 </p>
2836 </li>
2837 </ol></div>
2838 <div class="paragraph"><p>The extra <code>NUL</code> before the preimage path in renamed case is to allow
2839 scripts that read the output to tell if the current record being read is
2840 a single-path record or a rename/copy record without reading ahead.
2841 After reading added and deleted lines, reading up to <code>NUL</code> would yield
2842 the pathname, but if that is <code>NUL</code>, the record will show two paths.</p></div>
2843 </div>
2844 </div>
2845 <div class="sect1">
2846 <h2 id="_examples">EXAMPLES</h2>
2847 <div class="sectionbody">
2848 <div class="dlist"><dl>
2849 <dt class="hdlist1">
2850 Various ways to check your working tree
2851 </dt>
2852 <dd>
2853 <div class="listingblock">
2854 <div class="content">
2855 <pre><code>$ git diff <b>&lt;1&gt;</b>
2856 $ git diff --cached <b>&lt;2&gt;</b>
2857 $ git diff HEAD <b>&lt;3&gt;</b>
2858 $ git diff AUTO_MERGE <b>&lt;4&gt;</b></code></pre>
2859 </div></div>
2860 <div class="colist arabic"><ol>
2861 <li>
2863 Changes in the working tree not yet staged for the next commit.
2864 </p>
2865 </li>
2866 <li>
2868 Changes between the index and your last commit; what you
2869 would be committing if you run <code>git commit</code> without <code>-a</code> option.
2870 </p>
2871 </li>
2872 <li>
2874 Changes in the working tree since your last commit; what you
2875 would be committing if you run <code>git commit -a</code>
2876 </p>
2877 </li>
2878 <li>
2880 Changes in the working tree you&#8217;ve made to resolve textual
2881 conflicts so far.
2882 </p>
2883 </li>
2884 </ol></div>
2885 </dd>
2886 <dt class="hdlist1">
2887 Comparing with arbitrary commits
2888 </dt>
2889 <dd>
2890 <div class="listingblock">
2891 <div class="content">
2892 <pre><code>$ git diff test <b>&lt;1&gt;</b>
2893 $ git diff HEAD -- ./test <b>&lt;2&gt;</b>
2894 $ git diff HEAD^ HEAD <b>&lt;3&gt;</b></code></pre>
2895 </div></div>
2896 <div class="colist arabic"><ol>
2897 <li>
2899 Instead of using the tip of the current branch, compare with the
2900 tip of "test" branch.
2901 </p>
2902 </li>
2903 <li>
2905 Instead of comparing with the tip of "test" branch, compare with
2906 the tip of the current branch, but limit the comparison to the
2907 file "test".
2908 </p>
2909 </li>
2910 <li>
2912 Compare the version before the last commit and the last commit.
2913 </p>
2914 </li>
2915 </ol></div>
2916 </dd>
2917 <dt class="hdlist1">
2918 Comparing branches
2919 </dt>
2920 <dd>
2921 <div class="listingblock">
2922 <div class="content">
2923 <pre><code>$ git diff topic master <b>&lt;1&gt;</b>
2924 $ git diff topic..master <b>&lt;2&gt;</b>
2925 $ git diff topic...master <b>&lt;3&gt;</b></code></pre>
2926 </div></div>
2927 <div class="colist arabic"><ol>
2928 <li>
2930 Changes between the tips of the topic and the master branches.
2931 </p>
2932 </li>
2933 <li>
2935 Same as above.
2936 </p>
2937 </li>
2938 <li>
2940 Changes that occurred on the master branch since when the topic
2941 branch was started off it.
2942 </p>
2943 </li>
2944 </ol></div>
2945 </dd>
2946 <dt class="hdlist1">
2947 Limiting the diff output
2948 </dt>
2949 <dd>
2950 <div class="listingblock">
2951 <div class="content">
2952 <pre><code>$ git diff --diff-filter=MRC <b>&lt;1&gt;</b>
2953 $ git diff --name-status <b>&lt;2&gt;</b>
2954 $ git diff arch/i386 include/asm-i386 <b>&lt;3&gt;</b></code></pre>
2955 </div></div>
2956 <div class="colist arabic"><ol>
2957 <li>
2959 Show only modification, rename, and copy, but not addition
2960 or deletion.
2961 </p>
2962 </li>
2963 <li>
2965 Show only names and the nature of change, but not actual
2966 diff output.
2967 </p>
2968 </li>
2969 <li>
2971 Limit diff output to named subtrees.
2972 </p>
2973 </li>
2974 </ol></div>
2975 </dd>
2976 <dt class="hdlist1">
2977 Munging the diff output
2978 </dt>
2979 <dd>
2980 <div class="listingblock">
2981 <div class="content">
2982 <pre><code>$ git diff --find-copies-harder -B -C <b>&lt;1&gt;</b>
2983 $ git diff -R <b>&lt;2&gt;</b></code></pre>
2984 </div></div>
2985 <div class="colist arabic"><ol>
2986 <li>
2988 Spend extra cycles to find renames, copies and complete
2989 rewrites (very expensive).
2990 </p>
2991 </li>
2992 <li>
2994 Output diff in reverse.
2995 </p>
2996 </li>
2997 </ol></div>
2998 </dd>
2999 </dl></div>
3000 </div>
3001 </div>
3002 <div class="sect1">
3003 <h2 id="_configuration">CONFIGURATION</h2>
3004 <div class="sectionbody">
3005 <div class="paragraph"><p>Everything below this line in this section is selectively included
3006 from the <a href="git-config.html">git-config(1)</a> documentation. The content is the same
3007 as what&#8217;s found there:</p></div>
3008 <div class="dlist"><dl>
3009 <dt class="hdlist1">
3010 diff.autoRefreshIndex
3011 </dt>
3012 <dd>
3014 When using <em>git diff</em> to compare with work tree
3015 files, do not consider stat-only changes as changed.
3016 Instead, silently run <code>git update-index --refresh</code> to
3017 update the cached stat information for paths whose
3018 contents in the work tree match the contents in the
3019 index. This option defaults to true. Note that this
3020 affects only <em>git diff</em> Porcelain, and not lower level
3021 <em>diff</em> commands such as <em>git diff-files</em>.
3022 </p>
3023 </dd>
3024 <dt class="hdlist1">
3025 diff.dirstat
3026 </dt>
3027 <dd>
3029 A comma separated list of <code>--dirstat</code> parameters specifying the
3030 default behavior of the <code>--dirstat</code> option to <a href="git-diff.html">git-diff(1)</a>
3031 and friends. The defaults can be overridden on the command line
3032 (using <code>--dirstat=&lt;param1,param2,...&gt;</code>). The fallback defaults
3033 (when not changed by <code>diff.dirstat</code>) are <code>changes,noncumulative,3</code>.
3034 The following parameters are available:
3035 </p>
3036 <div class="openblock">
3037 <div class="content">
3038 <div class="dlist"><dl>
3039 <dt class="hdlist1">
3040 <code>changes</code>
3041 </dt>
3042 <dd>
3044 Compute the dirstat numbers by counting the lines that have been
3045 removed from the source, or added to the destination. This ignores
3046 the amount of pure code movements within a file. In other words,
3047 rearranging lines in a file is not counted as much as other changes.
3048 This is the default behavior when no parameter is given.
3049 </p>
3050 </dd>
3051 <dt class="hdlist1">
3052 <code>lines</code>
3053 </dt>
3054 <dd>
3056 Compute the dirstat numbers by doing the regular line-based diff
3057 analysis, and summing the removed/added line counts. (For binary
3058 files, count 64-byte chunks instead, since binary files have no
3059 natural concept of lines). This is a more expensive <code>--dirstat</code>
3060 behavior than the <code>changes</code> behavior, but it does count rearranged
3061 lines within a file as much as other changes. The resulting output
3062 is consistent with what you get from the other <code>--*stat</code> options.
3063 </p>
3064 </dd>
3065 <dt class="hdlist1">
3066 <code>files</code>
3067 </dt>
3068 <dd>
3070 Compute the dirstat numbers by counting the number of files changed.
3071 Each changed file counts equally in the dirstat analysis. This is
3072 the computationally cheapest <code>--dirstat</code> behavior, since it does
3073 not have to look at the file contents at all.
3074 </p>
3075 </dd>
3076 <dt class="hdlist1">
3077 <code>cumulative</code>
3078 </dt>
3079 <dd>
3081 Count changes in a child directory for the parent directory as well.
3082 Note that when using <code>cumulative</code>, the sum of the percentages
3083 reported may exceed 100%. The default (non-cumulative) behavior can
3084 be specified with the <code>noncumulative</code> parameter.
3085 </p>
3086 </dd>
3087 <dt class="hdlist1">
3088 &lt;limit&gt;
3089 </dt>
3090 <dd>
3092 An integer parameter specifies a cut-off percent (3% by default).
3093 Directories contributing less than this percentage of the changes
3094 are not shown in the output.
3095 </p>
3096 </dd>
3097 </dl></div>
3098 </div></div>
3099 <div class="paragraph"><p>Example: The following will count changed files, while ignoring
3100 directories with less than 10% of the total amount of changed files,
3101 and accumulating child directory counts in the parent directories:
3102 <code>files,10,cumulative</code>.</p></div>
3103 </dd>
3104 <dt class="hdlist1">
3105 diff.statNameWidth
3106 </dt>
3107 <dd>
3109 Limit the width of the filename part in --stat output. If set, applies
3110 to all commands generating --stat output except format-patch.
3111 </p>
3112 </dd>
3113 <dt class="hdlist1">
3114 diff.statGraphWidth
3115 </dt>
3116 <dd>
3118 Limit the width of the graph part in --stat output. If set, applies
3119 to all commands generating --stat output except format-patch.
3120 </p>
3121 </dd>
3122 <dt class="hdlist1">
3123 diff.context
3124 </dt>
3125 <dd>
3127 Generate diffs with &lt;n&gt; lines of context instead of the default
3128 of 3. This value is overridden by the -U option.
3129 </p>
3130 </dd>
3131 <dt class="hdlist1">
3132 diff.interHunkContext
3133 </dt>
3134 <dd>
3136 Show the context between diff hunks, up to the specified number
3137 of lines, thereby fusing the hunks that are close to each other.
3138 This value serves as the default for the <code>--inter-hunk-context</code>
3139 command line option.
3140 </p>
3141 </dd>
3142 <dt class="hdlist1">
3143 diff.external
3144 </dt>
3145 <dd>
3147 If this config variable is set, diff generation is not
3148 performed using the internal diff machinery, but using the
3149 given command. Can be overridden with the &#8216;GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF&#8217;
3150 environment variable. The command is called with parameters
3151 as described under "git Diffs" in <a href="git.html">git(1)</a>. Note: if
3152 you want to use an external diff program only on a subset of
3153 your files, you might want to use <a href="gitattributes.html">gitattributes(5)</a> instead.
3154 </p>
3155 </dd>
3156 <dt class="hdlist1">
3157 diff.ignoreSubmodules
3158 </dt>
3159 <dd>
3161 Sets the default value of --ignore-submodules. Note that this
3162 affects only <em>git diff</em> Porcelain, and not lower level <em>diff</em>
3163 commands such as <em>git diff-files</em>. <em>git checkout</em>
3164 and <em>git switch</em> also honor
3165 this setting when reporting uncommitted changes. Setting it to
3166 <em>all</em> disables the submodule summary normally shown by <em>git commit</em>
3167 and <em>git status</em> when <code>status.submoduleSummary</code> is set unless it is
3168 overridden by using the --ignore-submodules command-line option.
3169 The <em>git submodule</em> commands are not affected by this setting.
3170 By default this is set to untracked so that any untracked
3171 submodules are ignored.
3172 </p>
3173 </dd>
3174 <dt class="hdlist1">
3175 diff.mnemonicPrefix
3176 </dt>
3177 <dd>
3179 If set, <em>git diff</em> uses a prefix pair that is different from the
3180 standard "a/" and "b/" depending on what is being compared. When
3181 this configuration is in effect, reverse diff output also swaps
3182 the order of the prefixes:
3183 </p>
3184 <div class="dlist"><dl>
3185 <dt class="hdlist1">
3186 <code>git diff</code>
3187 </dt>
3188 <dd>
3190 compares the (i)ndex and the (w)ork tree;
3191 </p>
3192 </dd>
3193 <dt class="hdlist1">
3194 <code>git diff HEAD</code>
3195 </dt>
3196 <dd>
3198 compares a (c)ommit and the (w)ork tree;
3199 </p>
3200 </dd>
3201 <dt class="hdlist1">
3202 <code>git diff --cached</code>
3203 </dt>
3204 <dd>
3206 compares a (c)ommit and the (i)ndex;
3207 </p>
3208 </dd>
3209 <dt class="hdlist1">
3210 <code>git diff HEAD:file1 file2</code>
3211 </dt>
3212 <dd>
3214 compares an (o)bject and a (w)ork tree entity;
3215 </p>
3216 </dd>
3217 <dt class="hdlist1">
3218 <code>git diff --no-index a b</code>
3219 </dt>
3220 <dd>
3222 compares two non-git things (1) and (2).
3223 </p>
3224 </dd>
3225 </dl></div>
3226 </dd>
3227 <dt class="hdlist1">
3228 diff.noPrefix
3229 </dt>
3230 <dd>
3232 If set, <em>git diff</em> does not show any source or destination prefix.
3233 </p>
3234 </dd>
3235 <dt class="hdlist1">
3236 diff.srcPrefix
3237 </dt>
3238 <dd>
3240 If set, <em>git diff</em> uses this source prefix. Defaults to "a/".
3241 </p>
3242 </dd>
3243 <dt class="hdlist1">
3244 diff.dstPrefix
3245 </dt>
3246 <dd>
3248 If set, <em>git diff</em> uses this destination prefix. Defaults to "b/".
3249 </p>
3250 </dd>
3251 <dt class="hdlist1">
3252 diff.relative
3253 </dt>
3254 <dd>
3256 If set to <em>true</em>, <em>git diff</em> does not show changes outside of the directory
3257 and show pathnames relative to the current directory.
3258 </p>
3259 </dd>
3260 <dt class="hdlist1">
3261 diff.orderFile
3262 </dt>
3263 <dd>
3265 File indicating how to order files within a diff.
3266 See the <em>-O</em> option to <a href="git-diff.html">git-diff(1)</a> for details.
3267 If <code>diff.orderFile</code> is a relative pathname, it is treated as
3268 relative to the top of the working tree.
3269 </p>
3270 </dd>
3271 <dt class="hdlist1">
3272 diff.renameLimit
3273 </dt>
3274 <dd>
3276 The number of files to consider in the exhaustive portion of
3277 copy/rename detection; equivalent to the <em>git diff</em> option
3278 <code>-l</code>. If not set, the default value is currently 1000. This
3279 setting has no effect if rename detection is turned off.
3280 </p>
3281 </dd>
3282 <dt class="hdlist1">
3283 diff.renames
3284 </dt>
3285 <dd>
3287 Whether and how Git detects renames. If set to "false",
3288 rename detection is disabled. If set to "true", basic rename
3289 detection is enabled. If set to "copies" or "copy", Git will
3290 detect copies, as well. Defaults to true. Note that this
3291 affects only <em>git diff</em> Porcelain like <a href="git-diff.html">git-diff(1)</a> and
3292 <a href="git-log.html">git-log(1)</a>, and not lower level commands such as
3293 <a href="git-diff-files.html">git-diff-files(1)</a>.
3294 </p>
3295 </dd>
3296 <dt class="hdlist1">
3297 diff.suppressBlankEmpty
3298 </dt>
3299 <dd>
3301 A boolean to inhibit the standard behavior of printing a space
3302 before each empty output line. Defaults to false.
3303 </p>
3304 </dd>
3305 <dt class="hdlist1">
3306 diff.submodule
3307 </dt>
3308 <dd>
3310 Specify the format in which differences in submodules are
3311 shown. The "short" format just shows the names of the commits
3312 at the beginning and end of the range. The "log" format lists
3313 the commits in the range like <a href="git-submodule.html">git-submodule(1)</a> <code>summary</code>
3314 does. The "diff" format shows an inline diff of the changed
3315 contents of the submodule. Defaults to "short".
3316 </p>
3317 </dd>
3318 <dt class="hdlist1">
3319 diff.wordRegex
3320 </dt>
3321 <dd>
3323 A POSIX Extended Regular Expression used to determine what is a "word"
3324 when performing word-by-word difference calculations. Character
3325 sequences that match the regular expression are "words", all other
3326 characters are <strong>ignorable</strong> whitespace.
3327 </p>
3328 </dd>
3329 <dt class="hdlist1">
3330 diff.&lt;driver&gt;.command
3331 </dt>
3332 <dd>
3334 The custom diff driver command. See <a href="gitattributes.html">gitattributes(5)</a>
3335 for details.
3336 </p>
3337 </dd>
3338 <dt class="hdlist1">
3339 diff.&lt;driver&gt;.xfuncname
3340 </dt>
3341 <dd>
3343 The regular expression that the diff driver should use to
3344 recognize the hunk header. A built-in pattern may also be used.
3345 See <a href="gitattributes.html">gitattributes(5)</a> for details.
3346 </p>
3347 </dd>
3348 <dt class="hdlist1">
3349 diff.&lt;driver&gt;.binary
3350 </dt>
3351 <dd>
3353 Set this option to true to make the diff driver treat files as
3354 binary. See <a href="gitattributes.html">gitattributes(5)</a> for details.
3355 </p>
3356 </dd>
3357 <dt class="hdlist1">
3358 diff.&lt;driver&gt;.textconv
3359 </dt>
3360 <dd>
3362 The command that the diff driver should call to generate the
3363 text-converted version of a file. The result of the
3364 conversion is used to generate a human-readable diff. See
3365 <a href="gitattributes.html">gitattributes(5)</a> for details.
3366 </p>
3367 </dd>
3368 <dt class="hdlist1">
3369 diff.&lt;driver&gt;.wordRegex
3370 </dt>
3371 <dd>
3373 The regular expression that the diff driver should use to
3374 split words in a line. See <a href="gitattributes.html">gitattributes(5)</a> for
3375 details.
3376 </p>
3377 </dd>
3378 <dt class="hdlist1">
3379 diff.&lt;driver&gt;.cachetextconv
3380 </dt>
3381 <dd>
3383 Set this option to true to make the diff driver cache the text
3384 conversion outputs. See <a href="gitattributes.html">gitattributes(5)</a> for details.
3385 </p>
3386 <div class="dlist"><dl>
3387 <dt class="hdlist1">
3388 <code>araxis</code>
3389 </dt>
3390 <dd>
3392 Use Araxis Merge (requires a graphical session)
3393 </p>
3394 </dd>
3395 <dt class="hdlist1">
3396 <code>bc</code>
3397 </dt>
3398 <dd>
3400 Use Beyond Compare (requires a graphical session)
3401 </p>
3402 </dd>
3403 <dt class="hdlist1">
3404 <code>bc3</code>
3405 </dt>
3406 <dd>
3408 Use Beyond Compare (requires a graphical session)
3409 </p>
3410 </dd>
3411 <dt class="hdlist1">
3412 <code>bc4</code>
3413 </dt>
3414 <dd>
3416 Use Beyond Compare (requires a graphical session)
3417 </p>
3418 </dd>
3419 <dt class="hdlist1">
3420 <code>codecompare</code>
3421 </dt>
3422 <dd>
3424 Use Code Compare (requires a graphical session)
3425 </p>
3426 </dd>
3427 <dt class="hdlist1">
3428 <code>deltawalker</code>
3429 </dt>
3430 <dd>
3432 Use DeltaWalker (requires a graphical session)
3433 </p>
3434 </dd>
3435 <dt class="hdlist1">
3436 <code>diffmerge</code>
3437 </dt>
3438 <dd>
3440 Use DiffMerge (requires a graphical session)
3441 </p>
3442 </dd>
3443 <dt class="hdlist1">
3444 <code>diffuse</code>
3445 </dt>
3446 <dd>
3448 Use Diffuse (requires a graphical session)
3449 </p>
3450 </dd>
3451 <dt class="hdlist1">
3452 <code>ecmerge</code>
3453 </dt>
3454 <dd>
3456 Use ECMerge (requires a graphical session)
3457 </p>
3458 </dd>
3459 <dt class="hdlist1">
3460 <code>emerge</code>
3461 </dt>
3462 <dd>
3464 Use Emacs' Emerge
3465 </p>
3466 </dd>
3467 <dt class="hdlist1">
3468 <code>examdiff</code>
3469 </dt>
3470 <dd>
3472 Use ExamDiff Pro (requires a graphical session)
3473 </p>
3474 </dd>
3475 <dt class="hdlist1">
3476 <code>guiffy</code>
3477 </dt>
3478 <dd>
3480 Use Guiffy&#8217;s Diff Tool (requires a graphical session)
3481 </p>
3482 </dd>
3483 <dt class="hdlist1">
3484 <code>gvimdiff</code>
3485 </dt>
3486 <dd>
3488 Use gVim (requires a graphical session)
3489 </p>
3490 </dd>
3491 <dt class="hdlist1">
3492 <code>kdiff3</code>
3493 </dt>
3494 <dd>
3496 Use KDiff3 (requires a graphical session)
3497 </p>
3498 </dd>
3499 <dt class="hdlist1">
3500 <code>kompare</code>
3501 </dt>
3502 <dd>
3504 Use Kompare (requires a graphical session)
3505 </p>
3506 </dd>
3507 <dt class="hdlist1">
3508 <code>meld</code>
3509 </dt>
3510 <dd>
3512 Use Meld (requires a graphical session)
3513 </p>
3514 </dd>
3515 <dt class="hdlist1">
3516 <code>nvimdiff</code>
3517 </dt>
3518 <dd>
3520 Use Neovim
3521 </p>
3522 </dd>
3523 <dt class="hdlist1">
3524 <code>opendiff</code>
3525 </dt>
3526 <dd>
3528 Use FileMerge (requires a graphical session)
3529 </p>
3530 </dd>
3531 <dt class="hdlist1">
3532 <code>p4merge</code>
3533 </dt>
3534 <dd>
3536 Use HelixCore P4Merge (requires a graphical session)
3537 </p>
3538 </dd>
3539 <dt class="hdlist1">
3540 <code>smerge</code>
3541 </dt>
3542 <dd>
3544 Use Sublime Merge (requires a graphical session)
3545 </p>
3546 </dd>
3547 <dt class="hdlist1">
3548 <code>tkdiff</code>
3549 </dt>
3550 <dd>
3552 Use TkDiff (requires a graphical session)
3553 </p>
3554 </dd>
3555 <dt class="hdlist1">
3556 <code>vimdiff</code>
3557 </dt>
3558 <dd>
3560 Use Vim
3561 </p>
3562 </dd>
3563 <dt class="hdlist1">
3564 <code>winmerge</code>
3565 </dt>
3566 <dd>
3568 Use WinMerge (requires a graphical session)
3569 </p>
3570 </dd>
3571 <dt class="hdlist1">
3572 <code>xxdiff</code>
3573 </dt>
3574 <dd>
3576 Use xxdiff (requires a graphical session)
3577 </p>
3578 </dd>
3579 </dl></div>
3580 </dd>
3581 <dt class="hdlist1">
3582 diff.indentHeuristic
3583 </dt>
3584 <dd>
3586 Set this option to <code>false</code> to disable the default heuristics
3587 that shift diff hunk boundaries to make patches easier to read.
3588 </p>
3589 </dd>
3590 <dt class="hdlist1">
3591 diff.algorithm
3592 </dt>
3593 <dd>
3595 Choose a diff algorithm. The variants are as follows:
3596 </p>
3597 <div class="openblock">
3598 <div class="content">
3599 <div class="dlist"><dl>
3600 <dt class="hdlist1">
3601 <code>default</code>, <code>myers</code>
3602 </dt>
3603 <dd>
3605 The basic greedy diff algorithm. Currently, this is the default.
3606 </p>
3607 </dd>
3608 <dt class="hdlist1">
3609 <code>minimal</code>
3610 </dt>
3611 <dd>
3613 Spend extra time to make sure the smallest possible diff is
3614 produced.
3615 </p>
3616 </dd>
3617 <dt class="hdlist1">
3618 <code>patience</code>
3619 </dt>
3620 <dd>
3622 Use "patience diff" algorithm when generating patches.
3623 </p>
3624 </dd>
3625 <dt class="hdlist1">
3626 <code>histogram</code>
3627 </dt>
3628 <dd>
3630 This algorithm extends the patience algorithm to "support
3631 low-occurrence common elements".
3632 </p>
3633 </dd>
3634 </dl></div>
3635 </div></div>
3636 </dd>
3637 <dt class="hdlist1">
3638 diff.wsErrorHighlight
3639 </dt>
3640 <dd>
3642 Highlight whitespace errors in the <code>context</code>, <code>old</code> or <code>new</code>
3643 lines of the diff. Multiple values are separated by comma,
3644 <code>none</code> resets previous values, <code>default</code> reset the list to
3645 <code>new</code> and <code>all</code> is a shorthand for <code>old,new,context</code>. The
3646 whitespace errors are colored with <code>color.diff.whitespace</code>.
3647 The command line option <code>--ws-error-highlight=&lt;kind&gt;</code>
3648 overrides this setting.
3649 </p>
3650 </dd>
3651 <dt class="hdlist1">
3652 diff.colorMoved
3653 </dt>
3654 <dd>
3656 If set to either a valid <code>&lt;mode&gt;</code> or a true value, moved lines
3657 in a diff are colored differently, for details of valid modes
3658 see <em>--color-moved</em> in <a href="git-diff.html">git-diff(1)</a>. If simply set to
3659 true the default color mode will be used. When set to false,
3660 moved lines are not colored.
3661 </p>
3662 </dd>
3663 <dt class="hdlist1">
3664 diff.colorMovedWS
3665 </dt>
3666 <dd>
3668 When moved lines are colored using e.g. the <code>diff.colorMoved</code> setting,
3669 this option controls the <code>&lt;mode&gt;</code> how spaces are treated.
3670 For details of valid modes see <em>--color-moved-ws</em> in <a href="git-diff.html">git-diff(1)</a>.
3671 </p>
3672 </dd>
3673 </dl></div>
3674 </div>
3675 </div>
3676 <div class="sect1">
3677 <h2 id="_see_also">SEE ALSO</h2>
3678 <div class="sectionbody">
3679 <div class="paragraph"><p>diff(1),
3680 <a href="git-difftool.html">git-difftool(1)</a>,
3681 <a href="git-log.html">git-log(1)</a>,
3682 <a href="gitdiffcore.html">gitdiffcore(7)</a>,
3683 <a href="git-format-patch.html">git-format-patch(1)</a>,
3684 <a href="git-apply.html">git-apply(1)</a>,
3685 <a href="git-show.html">git-show(1)</a></p></div>
3686 </div>
3687 </div>
3688 <div class="sect1">
3689 <h2 id="_git">GIT</h2>
3690 <div class="sectionbody">
3691 <div class="paragraph"><p>Part of the <a href="git.html">git(1)</a> suite</p></div>
3692 </div>
3693 </div>
3694 </div>
3695 <div id="footnotes"><hr /></div>
3696 <div id="footer">
3697 <div id="footer-text">
3698 Last updated
3699 2023-12-27 15:50:18 PST
3700 </div>
3701 </div>
3702 </body>
3703 </html>