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).
26 {git-diff? This is the default.}
27 endif::git-format-patch[]
31 Generate diffs with <n> lines of context instead of
33 ifndef::git-format-patch[]
35 endif::git-format-patch[]
37 ifndef::git-format-patch[]
39 Generate the raw format.
40 {git-diff-core? This is the default.}
41 endif::git-format-patch[]
43 ifndef::git-format-patch[]
45 Synonym for `-p --raw`.
46 endif::git-format-patch[]
49 Spend extra time to make sure the smallest possible
53 Generate a diff using the "patience diff" algorithm.
55 --stat[=<width>[,<name-width>[,<count>]]]::
56 Generate a diffstat. You can override the default
57 output width for 80-column terminal by `--stat=<width>`.
58 The width of the filename part can be controlled by
59 giving another width to it separated by a comma.
60 By giving a third parameter `<count>`, you can limit the
61 output to the first `<count>` lines, followed by
62 `...` if there are more.
64 These parameters can also be set individually with `--stat-width=<width>`,
65 `--stat-name-width=<name-width>` and `--stat-count=<count>`.
68 Similar to `\--stat`, but shows number of added and
69 deleted lines in decimal notation and pathname without
70 abbreviation, to make it more machine friendly. For
71 binary files, outputs two `-` instead of saying
75 Output only the last line of the `--stat` format containing total
76 number of modified files, as well as number of added and deleted
79 --dirstat[=<param1,param2,...>]::
80 Output the distribution of relative amount of changes for each
81 sub-directory. The behavior of `--dirstat` can be customized by
82 passing it a comma separated list of parameters.
83 The defaults are controlled by the `diff.dirstat` configuration
84 variable (see linkgit:git-config[1]).
85 The following parameters are available:
89 Compute the dirstat numbers by counting the lines that have been
90 removed from the source, or added to the destination. This ignores
91 the amount of pure code movements within a file. In other words,
92 rearranging lines in a file is not counted as much as other changes.
93 This is the default behavior when no parameter is given.
95 Compute the dirstat numbers by doing the regular line-based diff
96 analysis, and summing the removed/added line counts. (For binary
97 files, count 64-byte chunks instead, since binary files have no
98 natural concept of lines). This is a more expensive `--dirstat`
99 behavior than the `changes` behavior, but it does count rearranged
100 lines within a file as much as other changes. The resulting output
101 is consistent with what you get from the other `--*stat` options.
103 Compute the dirstat numbers by counting the number of files changed.
104 Each changed file counts equally in the dirstat analysis. This is
105 the computationally cheapest `--dirstat` behavior, since it does
106 not have to look at the file contents at all.
108 Count changes in a child directory for the parent directory as well.
109 Note that when using `cumulative`, the sum of the percentages
110 reported may exceed 100%. The default (non-cumulative) behavior can
111 be specified with the `noncumulative` parameter.
113 An integer parameter specifies a cut-off percent (3% by default).
114 Directories contributing less than this percentage of the changes
115 are not shown in the output.
118 Example: The following will count changed files, while ignoring
119 directories with less than 10% of the total amount of changed files,
120 and accumulating child directory counts in the parent directories:
121 `--dirstat=files,10,cumulative`.
124 Output a condensed summary of extended header information
125 such as creations, renames and mode changes.
127 ifndef::git-format-patch[]
129 Synonym for `-p --stat`.
130 endif::git-format-patch[]
132 ifndef::git-format-patch[]
136 Separate the commits with NULs instead of with new newlines.
138 Also, when `--raw` or `--numstat` has been given, do not munge
139 pathnames and use NULs as output field terminators.
142 When `--raw`, `--numstat`, `--name-only` or `--name-status` has been
143 given, do not munge pathnames and use NULs as output field terminators.
146 Without this option, each pathname output will have TAB, LF, double quotes,
147 and backslash characters replaced with `\t`, `\n`, `\"`, and `\\`,
148 respectively, and the pathname will be enclosed in double quotes if
149 any of those replacements occurred.
152 Show only names of changed files.
155 Show only names and status of changed files. See the description
156 of the `--diff-filter` option on what the status letters mean.
158 --submodule[=<format>]::
159 Chose the output format for submodule differences. <format> can be one of
160 'short' and 'log'. 'short' just shows pairs of commit names, this format
161 is used when this option is not given. 'log' is the default value for this
162 option and lists the commits in that commit range like the 'summary'
163 option of linkgit:git-submodule[1] does.
167 The value must be `always` (the default for `<when>`), `never`, or `auto`.
168 The default value is `never`.
170 It can be changed by the `color.ui` and `color.diff`
171 configuration settings.
175 Turn off colored diff.
177 This can be used to override configuration settings.
179 It is the same as `--color=never`.
181 --word-diff[=<mode>]::
182 Show a word diff, using the <mode> to delimit changed words.
183 By default, words are delimited by whitespace; see
184 `--word-diff-regex` below. The <mode> defaults to 'plain', and
189 Highlight changed words using only colors. Implies `--color`.
191 Show words as `[-removed-]` and `{+added+}`. Makes no
192 attempts to escape the delimiters if they appear in the input,
193 so the output may be ambiguous.
195 Use a special line-based format intended for script
196 consumption. Added/removed/unchanged runs are printed in the
197 usual unified diff format, starting with a `+`/`-`/` `
198 character at the beginning of the line and extending to the
199 end of the line. Newlines in the input are represented by a
200 tilde `~` on a line of its own.
202 Disable word diff again.
205 Note that despite the name of the first mode, color is used to
206 highlight the changed parts in all modes if enabled.
208 --word-diff-regex=<regex>::
209 Use <regex> to decide what a word is, instead of considering
210 runs of non-whitespace to be a word. Also implies
211 `--word-diff` unless it was already enabled.
213 Every non-overlapping match of the
214 <regex> is considered a word. Anything between these matches is
215 considered whitespace and ignored(!) for the purposes of finding
216 differences. You may want to append `|[^[:space:]]` to your regular
217 expression to make sure that it matches all non-whitespace characters.
218 A match that contains a newline is silently truncated(!) at the
221 The regex can also be set via a diff driver or configuration option, see
222 linkgit:gitattributes[1] or linkgit:git-config[1]. Giving it explicitly
223 overrides any diff driver or configuration setting. Diff drivers
224 override configuration settings.
226 --color-words[=<regex>]::
227 Equivalent to `--word-diff=color` plus (if a regex was
228 specified) `--word-diff-regex=<regex>`.
229 endif::git-format-patch[]
232 Turn off rename detection, even when the configuration
233 file gives the default to do so.
235 ifndef::git-format-patch[]
237 Warn if changes introduce whitespace errors. What are
238 considered whitespace errors is controlled by `core.whitespace`
239 configuration. By default, trailing whitespaces (including
240 lines that solely consist of whitespaces) and a space character
241 that is immediately followed by a tab character inside the
242 initial indent of the line are considered whitespace errors.
243 Exits with non-zero status if problems are found. Not compatible
245 endif::git-format-patch[]
248 Instead of the first handful of characters, show the full
249 pre- and post-image blob object names on the "index"
250 line when generating patch format output.
253 In addition to `--full-index`, output a binary diff that
254 can be applied with `git-apply`.
257 Instead of showing the full 40-byte hexadecimal object
258 name in diff-raw format output and diff-tree header
259 lines, show only a partial prefix. This is
260 independent of the `--full-index` option above, which controls
261 the diff-patch output format. Non default number of
262 digits can be specified with `--abbrev=<n>`.
265 --break-rewrites[=[<n>][/<m>]]::
266 Break complete rewrite changes into pairs of delete and
267 create. This serves two purposes:
269 It affects the way a change that amounts to a total rewrite of a file
270 not as a series of deletion and insertion mixed together with a very
271 few lines that happen to match textually as the context, but as a
272 single deletion of everything old followed by a single insertion of
273 everything new, and the number `m` controls this aspect of the -B
274 option (defaults to 60%). `-B/70%` specifies that less than 30% of the
275 original should remain in the result for git to consider it a total
276 rewrite (i.e. otherwise the resulting patch will be a series of
277 deletion and insertion mixed together with context lines).
279 When used with -M, a totally-rewritten file is also considered as the
280 source of a rename (usually -M only considers a file that disappeared
281 as the source of a rename), and the number `n` controls this aspect of
282 the -B option (defaults to 50%). `-B20%` specifies that a change with
283 addition and deletion compared to 20% or more of the file's size are
284 eligible for being picked up as a possible source of a rename to
288 --find-renames[=<n>]::
293 If generating diffs, detect and report renames for each commit.
294 For following files across renames while traversing history, see
297 If `n` is specified, it is a threshold on the similarity
298 index (i.e. amount of addition/deletions compared to the
299 file's size). For example, `-M90%` means git should consider a
300 delete/add pair to be a rename if more than 90% of the file
304 --find-copies[=<n>]::
305 Detect copies as well as renames. See also `--find-copies-harder`.
306 If `n` is specified, it has the same meaning as for `-M<n>`.
308 --find-copies-harder::
309 For performance reasons, by default, `-C` option finds copies only
310 if the original file of the copy was modified in the same
311 changeset. This flag makes the command
312 inspect unmodified files as candidates for the source of
313 copy. This is a very expensive operation for large
314 projects, so use it with caution. Giving more than one
315 `-C` option has the same effect.
318 --irreversible-delete::
319 Omit the preimage for deletes, i.e. print only the header but not
320 the diff between the preimage and `/dev/null`. The resulting patch
321 is not meant to be applied with `patch` nor `git apply`; this is
322 solely for people who want to just concentrate on reviewing the
323 text after the change. In addition, the output obviously lack
324 enough information to apply such a patch in reverse, even manually,
325 hence the name of the option.
327 When used together with `-B`, omit also the preimage in the deletion part
328 of a delete/create pair.
331 The `-M` and `-C` options require O(n^2) processing time where n
332 is the number of potential rename/copy targets. This
333 option prevents rename/copy detection from running if
334 the number of rename/copy targets exceeds the specified
337 ifndef::git-format-patch[]
338 --diff-filter=[(A|C|D|M|R|T|U|X|B)...[*]]::
339 Select only files that are Added (`A`), Copied (`C`),
340 Deleted (`D`), Modified (`M`), Renamed (`R`), have their
341 type (i.e. regular file, symlink, submodule, ...) changed (`T`),
342 are Unmerged (`U`), are
343 Unknown (`X`), or have had their pairing Broken (`B`).
344 Any combination of the filter characters (including none) can be used.
345 When `*` (All-or-none) is added to the combination, all
346 paths are selected if there is any file that matches
347 other criteria in the comparison; if there is no file
348 that matches other criteria, nothing is selected.
351 Look for differences that introduce or remove an instance of
352 <string>. Note that this is different than the string simply
353 appearing in diff output; see the 'pickaxe' entry in
354 linkgit:gitdiffcore[7] for more details.
357 Look for differences whose added or removed line matches
361 When `-S` or `-G` finds a change, show all the changes in that
362 changeset, not just the files that contain the change
366 Make the <string> not a plain string but an extended POSIX
368 endif::git-format-patch[]
371 Output the patch in the order specified in the
372 <orderfile>, which has one shell glob pattern per line.
374 ifndef::git-format-patch[]
376 Swap two inputs; that is, show differences from index or
377 on-disk file to tree contents.
379 --relative[=<path>]::
380 When run from a subdirectory of the project, it can be
381 told to exclude changes outside the directory and show
382 pathnames relative to it with this option. When you are
383 not in a subdirectory (e.g. in a bare repository), you
384 can name which subdirectory to make the output relative
385 to by giving a <path> as an argument.
386 endif::git-format-patch[]
390 Treat all files as text.
392 --ignore-space-at-eol::
393 Ignore changes in whitespace at EOL.
396 --ignore-space-change::
397 Ignore changes in amount of whitespace. This ignores whitespace
398 at line end, and considers all other sequences of one or
399 more whitespace characters to be equivalent.
403 Ignore whitespace when comparing lines. This ignores
404 differences even if one line has whitespace where the other
407 --inter-hunk-context=<lines>::
408 Show the context between diff hunks, up to the specified number
409 of lines, thereby fusing hunks that are close to each other.
411 ifndef::git-format-patch[]
413 Make the program exit with codes similar to diff(1).
414 That is, it exits with 1 if there were differences and
415 0 means no differences.
418 Disable all output of the program. Implies `--exit-code`.
419 endif::git-format-patch[]
422 Allow an external diff helper to be executed. If you set an
423 external diff driver with linkgit:gitattributes[5], you need
424 to use this option with linkgit:git-log[1] and friends.
427 Disallow external diff drivers.
431 Allow (or disallow) external text conversion filters to be run
432 when comparing binary files. See linkgit:gitattributes[5] for
433 details. Because textconv filters are typically a one-way
434 conversion, the resulting diff is suitable for human
435 consumption, but cannot be applied. For this reason, textconv
436 filters are enabled by default only for linkgit:git-diff[1] and
437 linkgit:git-log[1], but not for linkgit:git-format-patch[1] or
438 diff plumbing commands.
440 --ignore-submodules[=<when>]::
441 Ignore changes to submodules in the diff generation. <when> can be
442 either "none", "untracked", "dirty" or "all", which is the default
443 Using "none" will consider the submodule modified when it either contains
444 untracked or modified files or its HEAD differs from the commit recorded
445 in the superproject and can be used to override any settings of the
446 'ignore' option in linkgit:git-config[1] or linkgit:gitmodules[5]. When
447 "untracked" is used submodules are not considered dirty when they only
448 contain untracked content (but they are still scanned for modified
449 content). Using "dirty" ignores all changes to the work tree of submodules,
450 only changes to the commits stored in the superproject are shown (this was
451 the behavior until 1.7.0). Using "all" hides all changes to submodules.
453 --src-prefix=<prefix>::
454 Show the given source prefix instead of "a/".
456 --dst-prefix=<prefix>::
457 Show the given destination prefix instead of "b/".
460 Do not show any source or destination prefix.
462 For more detailed explanation on these common options, see also
463 linkgit:gitdiffcore[7].