1 // Please don't remove this comment as asciidoc behaves badly when
2 // the first non-empty line is ifdef/ifndef. The symptom is that
3 // without this comment the <git-diff-core> attribute conditionally
4 // defined below ends up being defined unconditionally.
5 // Last checked with asciidoc 7.0.2.
7 ifndef::git-format-patch[]
13 endif::git-format-patch[]
15 ifdef::git-format-patch[]
18 Generate plain patches without any diffstats.
19 endif::git-format-patch[]
21 ifndef::git-format-patch[]
25 Generate patch (see section on generating patches).
32 Suppress diff output. Useful for commands like `git show` that
33 show the patch by default, or to cancel the effect of `--patch`.
34 endif::git-format-patch[]
38 Generate diffs with <n> lines of context instead of
40 ifndef::git-format-patch[]
42 endif::git-format-patch[]
44 ifndef::git-format-patch[]
47 Generate the diff in raw format.
48 ifdef::git-diff-core[]
50 endif::git-diff-core[]
53 For each commit, show a summary of changes using the raw diff
54 format. See the "RAW OUTPUT FORMAT" section of
55 linkgit:git-diff[1]. This is different from showing the log
56 itself in raw format, which you can achieve with
59 endif::git-format-patch[]
61 ifndef::git-format-patch[]
63 Synonym for `-p --raw`.
64 endif::git-format-patch[]
67 Enable the heuristic that shift diff hunk boundaries to make patches
68 easier to read. This is the default.
70 --no-indent-heuristic::
71 Disable the indent heuristic.
74 Spend extra time to make sure the smallest possible
78 Generate a diff using the "patience diff" algorithm.
81 Generate a diff using the "histogram diff" algorithm.
84 Generate a diff using the "anchored diff" algorithm.
86 This option may be specified more than once.
88 If a line exists in both the source and destination, exists only once,
89 and starts with this text, this algorithm attempts to prevent it from
90 appearing as a deletion or addition in the output. It uses the "patience
91 diff" algorithm internally.
93 --diff-algorithm={patience|minimal|histogram|myers}::
94 Choose a diff algorithm. The variants are as follows:
98 The basic greedy diff algorithm. Currently, this is the default.
100 Spend extra time to make sure the smallest possible diff is
103 Use "patience diff" algorithm when generating patches.
105 This algorithm extends the patience algorithm to "support
106 low-occurrence common elements".
109 For instance, if you configured diff.algorithm variable to a
110 non-default value and want to use the default one, then you
111 have to use `--diff-algorithm=default` option.
113 --stat[=<width>[,<name-width>[,<count>]]]::
114 Generate a diffstat. By default, as much space as necessary
115 will be used for the filename part, and the rest for the graph
116 part. Maximum width defaults to terminal width, or 80 columns
117 if not connected to a terminal, and can be overridden by
118 `<width>`. The width of the filename part can be limited by
119 giving another width `<name-width>` after a comma. The width
120 of the graph part can be limited by using
121 `--stat-graph-width=<width>` (affects all commands generating
122 a stat graph) or by setting `diff.statGraphWidth=<width>`
123 (does not affect `git format-patch`).
124 By giving a third parameter `<count>`, you can limit the
125 output to the first `<count>` lines, followed by `...` if
128 These parameters can also be set individually with `--stat-width=<width>`,
129 `--stat-name-width=<name-width>` and `--stat-count=<count>`.
132 Output a condensed summary of extended header information such
133 as file creations or deletions ("new" or "gone", optionally "+l"
134 if it's a symlink) and mode changes ("+x" or "-x" for adding
135 or removing executable bit respectively) in diffstat. The
136 information is put betwen the filename part and the graph
137 part. Implies `--stat`.
140 Similar to `--stat`, but shows number of added and
141 deleted lines in decimal notation and pathname without
142 abbreviation, to make it more machine friendly. For
143 binary files, outputs two `-` instead of saying
147 Output only the last line of the `--stat` format containing total
148 number of modified files, as well as number of added and deleted
151 --dirstat[=<param1,param2,...>]::
152 Output the distribution of relative amount of changes for each
153 sub-directory. The behavior of `--dirstat` can be customized by
154 passing it a comma separated list of parameters.
155 The defaults are controlled by the `diff.dirstat` configuration
156 variable (see linkgit:git-config[1]).
157 The following parameters are available:
161 Compute the dirstat numbers by counting the lines that have been
162 removed from the source, or added to the destination. This ignores
163 the amount of pure code movements within a file. In other words,
164 rearranging lines in a file is not counted as much as other changes.
165 This is the default behavior when no parameter is given.
167 Compute the dirstat numbers by doing the regular line-based diff
168 analysis, and summing the removed/added line counts. (For binary
169 files, count 64-byte chunks instead, since binary files have no
170 natural concept of lines). This is a more expensive `--dirstat`
171 behavior than the `changes` behavior, but it does count rearranged
172 lines within a file as much as other changes. The resulting output
173 is consistent with what you get from the other `--*stat` options.
175 Compute the dirstat numbers by counting the number of files changed.
176 Each changed file counts equally in the dirstat analysis. This is
177 the computationally cheapest `--dirstat` behavior, since it does
178 not have to look at the file contents at all.
180 Count changes in a child directory for the parent directory as well.
181 Note that when using `cumulative`, the sum of the percentages
182 reported may exceed 100%. The default (non-cumulative) behavior can
183 be specified with the `noncumulative` parameter.
185 An integer parameter specifies a cut-off percent (3% by default).
186 Directories contributing less than this percentage of the changes
187 are not shown in the output.
190 Example: The following will count changed files, while ignoring
191 directories with less than 10% of the total amount of changed files,
192 and accumulating child directory counts in the parent directories:
193 `--dirstat=files,10,cumulative`.
196 Output a condensed summary of extended header information
197 such as creations, renames and mode changes.
199 ifndef::git-format-patch[]
201 Synonym for `-p --stat`.
202 endif::git-format-patch[]
204 ifndef::git-format-patch[]
208 Separate the commits with NULs instead of with new newlines.
210 Also, when `--raw` or `--numstat` has been given, do not munge
211 pathnames and use NULs as output field terminators.
214 When `--raw`, `--numstat`, `--name-only` or `--name-status` has been
215 given, do not munge pathnames and use NULs as output field terminators.
218 Without this option, pathnames with "unusual" characters are quoted as
219 explained for the configuration variable `core.quotePath` (see
220 linkgit:git-config[1]).
223 Show only names of changed files.
226 Show only names and status of changed files. See the description
227 of the `--diff-filter` option on what the status letters mean.
229 --submodule[=<format>]::
230 Specify how differences in submodules are shown. When specifying
231 `--submodule=short` the 'short' format is used. This format just
232 shows the names of the commits at the beginning and end of the range.
233 When `--submodule` or `--submodule=log` is specified, the 'log'
234 format is used. This format lists the commits in the range like
235 linkgit:git-submodule[1] `summary` does. When `--submodule=diff`
236 is specified, the 'diff' format is used. This format shows an
237 inline diff of the changes in the submodule contents between the
238 commit range. Defaults to `diff.submodule` or the 'short' format
239 if the config option is unset.
243 `--color` (i.e. without '=<when>') is the same as `--color=always`.
244 '<when>' can be one of `always`, `never`, or `auto`.
246 It can be changed by the `color.ui` and `color.diff`
247 configuration settings.
251 Turn off colored diff.
253 This can be used to override configuration settings.
255 It is the same as `--color=never`.
257 --color-moved[=<mode>]::
258 Moved lines of code are colored differently.
260 It can be changed by the `diff.colorMoved` configuration setting.
262 The <mode> defaults to 'no' if the option is not given
263 and to 'zebra' if the option with no mode is given.
264 The mode must be one of:
268 Moved lines are not highlighted.
270 Is a synonym for `zebra`. This may change to a more sensible mode
273 Any line that is added in one location and was removed
274 in another location will be colored with 'color.diff.newMoved'.
275 Similarly 'color.diff.oldMoved' will be used for removed lines
276 that are added somewhere else in the diff. This mode picks up any
277 moved line, but it is not very useful in a review to determine
278 if a block of code was moved without permutation.
280 Blocks of moved text of at least 20 alphanumeric characters
281 are detected greedily. The detected blocks are
282 painted using either the 'color.diff.{old,new}Moved' color or
283 'color.diff.{old,new}MovedAlternative'. The change between
284 the two colors indicates that a new block was detected.
286 Similar to 'zebra', but additional dimming of uninteresting parts
287 of moved code is performed. The bordering lines of two adjacent
288 blocks are considered interesting, the rest is uninteresting.
291 --word-diff[=<mode>]::
292 Show a word diff, using the <mode> to delimit changed words.
293 By default, words are delimited by whitespace; see
294 `--word-diff-regex` below. The <mode> defaults to 'plain', and
299 Highlight changed words using only colors. Implies `--color`.
301 Show words as `[-removed-]` and `{+added+}`. Makes no
302 attempts to escape the delimiters if they appear in the input,
303 so the output may be ambiguous.
305 Use a special line-based format intended for script
306 consumption. Added/removed/unchanged runs are printed in the
307 usual unified diff format, starting with a `+`/`-`/` `
308 character at the beginning of the line and extending to the
309 end of the line. Newlines in the input are represented by a
310 tilde `~` on a line of its own.
312 Disable word diff again.
315 Note that despite the name of the first mode, color is used to
316 highlight the changed parts in all modes if enabled.
318 --word-diff-regex=<regex>::
319 Use <regex> to decide what a word is, instead of considering
320 runs of non-whitespace to be a word. Also implies
321 `--word-diff` unless it was already enabled.
323 Every non-overlapping match of the
324 <regex> is considered a word. Anything between these matches is
325 considered whitespace and ignored(!) for the purposes of finding
326 differences. You may want to append `|[^[:space:]]` to your regular
327 expression to make sure that it matches all non-whitespace characters.
328 A match that contains a newline is silently truncated(!) at the
331 For example, `--word-diff-regex=.` will treat each character as a word
332 and, correspondingly, show differences character by character.
334 The regex can also be set via a diff driver or configuration option, see
335 linkgit:gitattributes[5] or linkgit:git-config[1]. Giving it explicitly
336 overrides any diff driver or configuration setting. Diff drivers
337 override configuration settings.
339 --color-words[=<regex>]::
340 Equivalent to `--word-diff=color` plus (if a regex was
341 specified) `--word-diff-regex=<regex>`.
342 endif::git-format-patch[]
345 Turn off rename detection, even when the configuration
346 file gives the default to do so.
348 ifndef::git-format-patch[]
350 Warn if changes introduce conflict markers or whitespace errors.
351 What are considered whitespace errors is controlled by `core.whitespace`
352 configuration. By default, trailing whitespaces (including
353 lines that solely consist of whitespaces) and a space character
354 that is immediately followed by a tab character inside the
355 initial indent of the line are considered whitespace errors.
356 Exits with non-zero status if problems are found. Not compatible
359 --ws-error-highlight=<kind>::
360 Highlight whitespace errors in the `context`, `old` or `new`
361 lines of the diff. Multiple values are separated by comma,
362 `none` resets previous values, `default` reset the list to
363 `new` and `all` is a shorthand for `old,new,context`. When
364 this option is not given, and the configuration variable
365 `diff.wsErrorHighlight` is not set, only whitespace errors in
366 `new` lines are highlighted. The whitespace errors are colored
367 whith `color.diff.whitespace`.
369 endif::git-format-patch[]
372 Instead of the first handful of characters, show the full
373 pre- and post-image blob object names on the "index"
374 line when generating patch format output.
377 In addition to `--full-index`, output a binary diff that
378 can be applied with `git-apply`.
381 Instead of showing the full 40-byte hexadecimal object
382 name in diff-raw format output and diff-tree header
383 lines, show only a partial prefix. This is
384 independent of the `--full-index` option above, which controls
385 the diff-patch output format. Non default number of
386 digits can be specified with `--abbrev=<n>`.
389 --break-rewrites[=[<n>][/<m>]]::
390 Break complete rewrite changes into pairs of delete and
391 create. This serves two purposes:
393 It affects the way a change that amounts to a total rewrite of a file
394 not as a series of deletion and insertion mixed together with a very
395 few lines that happen to match textually as the context, but as a
396 single deletion of everything old followed by a single insertion of
397 everything new, and the number `m` controls this aspect of the -B
398 option (defaults to 60%). `-B/70%` specifies that less than 30% of the
399 original should remain in the result for Git to consider it a total
400 rewrite (i.e. otherwise the resulting patch will be a series of
401 deletion and insertion mixed together with context lines).
403 When used with -M, a totally-rewritten file is also considered as the
404 source of a rename (usually -M only considers a file that disappeared
405 as the source of a rename), and the number `n` controls this aspect of
406 the -B option (defaults to 50%). `-B20%` specifies that a change with
407 addition and deletion compared to 20% or more of the file's size are
408 eligible for being picked up as a possible source of a rename to
412 --find-renames[=<n>]::
417 If generating diffs, detect and report renames for each commit.
418 For following files across renames while traversing history, see
421 If `n` is specified, it is a threshold on the similarity
422 index (i.e. amount of addition/deletions compared to the
423 file's size). For example, `-M90%` means Git should consider a
424 delete/add pair to be a rename if more than 90% of the file
425 hasn't changed. Without a `%` sign, the number is to be read as
426 a fraction, with a decimal point before it. I.e., `-M5` becomes
427 0.5, and is thus the same as `-M50%`. Similarly, `-M05` is
428 the same as `-M5%`. To limit detection to exact renames, use
429 `-M100%`. The default similarity index is 50%.
432 --find-copies[=<n>]::
433 Detect copies as well as renames. See also `--find-copies-harder`.
434 If `n` is specified, it has the same meaning as for `-M<n>`.
436 --find-copies-harder::
437 For performance reasons, by default, `-C` option finds copies only
438 if the original file of the copy was modified in the same
439 changeset. This flag makes the command
440 inspect unmodified files as candidates for the source of
441 copy. This is a very expensive operation for large
442 projects, so use it with caution. Giving more than one
443 `-C` option has the same effect.
446 --irreversible-delete::
447 Omit the preimage for deletes, i.e. print only the header but not
448 the diff between the preimage and `/dev/null`. The resulting patch
449 is not meant to be applied with `patch` or `git apply`; this is
450 solely for people who want to just concentrate on reviewing the
451 text after the change. In addition, the output obviously lacks
452 enough information to apply such a patch in reverse, even manually,
453 hence the name of the option.
455 When used together with `-B`, omit also the preimage in the deletion part
456 of a delete/create pair.
459 The `-M` and `-C` options require O(n^2) processing time where n
460 is the number of potential rename/copy targets. This
461 option prevents rename/copy detection from running if
462 the number of rename/copy targets exceeds the specified
465 ifndef::git-format-patch[]
466 --diff-filter=[(A|C|D|M|R|T|U|X|B)...[*]]::
467 Select only files that are Added (`A`), Copied (`C`),
468 Deleted (`D`), Modified (`M`), Renamed (`R`), have their
469 type (i.e. regular file, symlink, submodule, ...) changed (`T`),
470 are Unmerged (`U`), are
471 Unknown (`X`), or have had their pairing Broken (`B`).
472 Any combination of the filter characters (including none) can be used.
473 When `*` (All-or-none) is added to the combination, all
474 paths are selected if there is any file that matches
475 other criteria in the comparison; if there is no file
476 that matches other criteria, nothing is selected.
478 Also, these upper-case letters can be downcased to exclude. E.g.
479 `--diff-filter=ad` excludes added and deleted paths.
481 Note that not all diffs can feature all types. For instance, diffs
482 from the index to the working tree can never have Added entries
483 (because the set of paths included in the diff is limited by what is in
484 the index). Similarly, copied and renamed entries cannot appear if
485 detection for those types is disabled.
488 Look for differences that change the number of occurrences of
489 the specified string (i.e. addition/deletion) in a file.
490 Intended for the scripter's use.
492 It is useful when you're looking for an exact block of code (like a
493 struct), and want to know the history of that block since it first
494 came into being: use the feature iteratively to feed the interesting
495 block in the preimage back into `-S`, and keep going until you get the
496 very first version of the block.
499 Look for differences whose patch text contains added/removed
500 lines that match <regex>.
502 To illustrate the difference between `-S<regex> --pickaxe-regex` and
503 `-G<regex>`, consider a commit with the following diff in the same
507 + return !regexec(regexp, two->ptr, 1, ®match, 0);
509 - hit = !regexec(regexp, mf2.ptr, 1, ®match, 0);
512 While `git log -G"regexec\(regexp"` will show this commit, `git log
513 -S"regexec\(regexp" --pickaxe-regex` will not (because the number of
514 occurrences of that string did not change).
516 See the 'pickaxe' entry in linkgit:gitdiffcore[7] for more
519 --find-object=<object-id>::
520 Look for differences that change the number of occurrences of
521 the specified object. Similar to `-S`, just the argument is different
522 in that it doesn't search for a specific string but for a specific
525 The object can be a blob or a submodule commit. It implies the `-t` option in
526 `git-log` to also find trees.
529 When `-S` or `-G` finds a change, show all the changes in that
530 changeset, not just the files that contain the change
534 Treat the <string> given to `-S` as an extended POSIX regular
537 endif::git-format-patch[]
540 Control the order in which files appear in the output.
541 This overrides the `diff.orderFile` configuration variable
542 (see linkgit:git-config[1]). To cancel `diff.orderFile`,
545 The output order is determined by the order of glob patterns in
547 All files with pathnames that match the first pattern are output
548 first, all files with pathnames that match the second pattern (but not
549 the first) are output next, and so on.
550 All files with pathnames that do not match any pattern are output
551 last, as if there was an implicit match-all pattern at the end of the
553 If multiple pathnames have the same rank (they match the same pattern
554 but no earlier patterns), their output order relative to each other is
557 <orderfile> is parsed as follows:
560 - Blank lines are ignored, so they can be used as separators for
563 - Lines starting with a hash ("`#`") are ignored, so they can be used
564 for comments. Add a backslash ("`\`") to the beginning of the
565 pattern if it starts with a hash.
567 - Each other line contains a single pattern.
570 Patterns have the same syntax and semantics as patterns used for
571 fnmantch(3) without the FNM_PATHNAME flag, except a pathname also
572 matches a pattern if removing any number of the final pathname
573 components matches the pattern. For example, the pattern "`foo*bar`"
574 matches "`fooasdfbar`" and "`foo/bar/baz/asdf`" but not "`foobarx`".
576 ifndef::git-format-patch[]
578 Swap two inputs; that is, show differences from index or
579 on-disk file to tree contents.
581 --relative[=<path>]::
582 When run from a subdirectory of the project, it can be
583 told to exclude changes outside the directory and show
584 pathnames relative to it with this option. When you are
585 not in a subdirectory (e.g. in a bare repository), you
586 can name which subdirectory to make the output relative
587 to by giving a <path> as an argument.
588 endif::git-format-patch[]
592 Treat all files as text.
595 Ignore carrige-return at the end of line when doing a comparison.
597 --ignore-space-at-eol::
598 Ignore changes in whitespace at EOL.
601 --ignore-space-change::
602 Ignore changes in amount of whitespace. This ignores whitespace
603 at line end, and considers all other sequences of one or
604 more whitespace characters to be equivalent.
608 Ignore whitespace when comparing lines. This ignores
609 differences even if one line has whitespace where the other
612 --ignore-blank-lines::
613 Ignore changes whose lines are all blank.
615 --inter-hunk-context=<lines>::
616 Show the context between diff hunks, up to the specified number
617 of lines, thereby fusing hunks that are close to each other.
618 Defaults to `diff.interHunkContext` or 0 if the config option
623 Show whole surrounding functions of changes.
625 ifndef::git-format-patch[]
628 Make the program exit with codes similar to diff(1).
629 That is, it exits with 1 if there were differences and
630 0 means no differences.
633 Disable all output of the program. Implies `--exit-code`.
635 endif::git-format-patch[]
638 Allow an external diff helper to be executed. If you set an
639 external diff driver with linkgit:gitattributes[5], you need
640 to use this option with linkgit:git-log[1] and friends.
643 Disallow external diff drivers.
647 Allow (or disallow) external text conversion filters to be run
648 when comparing binary files. See linkgit:gitattributes[5] for
649 details. Because textconv filters are typically a one-way
650 conversion, the resulting diff is suitable for human
651 consumption, but cannot be applied. For this reason, textconv
652 filters are enabled by default only for linkgit:git-diff[1] and
653 linkgit:git-log[1], but not for linkgit:git-format-patch[1] or
654 diff plumbing commands.
656 --ignore-submodules[=<when>]::
657 Ignore changes to submodules in the diff generation. <when> can be
658 either "none", "untracked", "dirty" or "all", which is the default.
659 Using "none" will consider the submodule modified when it either contains
660 untracked or modified files or its HEAD differs from the commit recorded
661 in the superproject and can be used to override any settings of the
662 'ignore' option in linkgit:git-config[1] or linkgit:gitmodules[5]. When
663 "untracked" is used submodules are not considered dirty when they only
664 contain untracked content (but they are still scanned for modified
665 content). Using "dirty" ignores all changes to the work tree of submodules,
666 only changes to the commits stored in the superproject are shown (this was
667 the behavior until 1.7.0). Using "all" hides all changes to submodules.
669 --src-prefix=<prefix>::
670 Show the given source prefix instead of "a/".
672 --dst-prefix=<prefix>::
673 Show the given destination prefix instead of "b/".
676 Do not show any source or destination prefix.
678 --line-prefix=<prefix>::
679 Prepend an additional prefix to every line of output.
681 --ita-invisible-in-index::
682 By default entries added by "git add -N" appear as an existing
683 empty file in "git diff" and a new file in "git diff --cached".
684 This option makes the entry appear as a new file in "git diff"
685 and non-existent in "git diff --cached". This option could be
686 reverted with `--ita-visible-in-index`. Both options are
687 experimental and could be removed in future.
689 For more detailed explanation on these common options, see also
690 linkgit:gitdiffcore[7].