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[]
66 include::diff-heuristic-options.txt[]
69 Spend extra time to make sure the smallest possible
73 Generate a diff using the "patience diff" algorithm.
76 Generate a diff using the "histogram diff" algorithm.
78 --diff-algorithm={patience|minimal|histogram|myers}::
79 Choose a diff algorithm. The variants are as follows:
83 The basic greedy diff algorithm. Currently, this is the default.
85 Spend extra time to make sure the smallest possible diff is
88 Use "patience diff" algorithm when generating patches.
90 This algorithm extends the patience algorithm to "support
91 low-occurrence common elements".
94 For instance, if you configured diff.algorithm variable to a
95 non-default value and want to use the default one, then you
96 have to use `--diff-algorithm=default` option.
98 --stat[=<width>[,<name-width>[,<count>]]]::
99 Generate a diffstat. By default, as much space as necessary
100 will be used for the filename part, and the rest for the graph
101 part. Maximum width defaults to terminal width, or 80 columns
102 if not connected to a terminal, and can be overridden by
103 `<width>`. The width of the filename part can be limited by
104 giving another width `<name-width>` after a comma. The width
105 of the graph part can be limited by using
106 `--stat-graph-width=<width>` (affects all commands generating
107 a stat graph) or by setting `diff.statGraphWidth=<width>`
108 (does not affect `git format-patch`).
109 By giving a third parameter `<count>`, you can limit the
110 output to the first `<count>` lines, followed by `...` if
113 These parameters can also be set individually with `--stat-width=<width>`,
114 `--stat-name-width=<name-width>` and `--stat-count=<count>`.
117 Similar to `--stat`, but shows number of added and
118 deleted lines in decimal notation and pathname without
119 abbreviation, to make it more machine friendly. For
120 binary files, outputs two `-` instead of saying
124 Output only the last line of the `--stat` format containing total
125 number of modified files, as well as number of added and deleted
128 --dirstat[=<param1,param2,...>]::
129 Output the distribution of relative amount of changes for each
130 sub-directory. The behavior of `--dirstat` can be customized by
131 passing it a comma separated list of parameters.
132 The defaults are controlled by the `diff.dirstat` configuration
133 variable (see linkgit:git-config[1]).
134 The following parameters are available:
138 Compute the dirstat numbers by counting the lines that have been
139 removed from the source, or added to the destination. This ignores
140 the amount of pure code movements within a file. In other words,
141 rearranging lines in a file is not counted as much as other changes.
142 This is the default behavior when no parameter is given.
144 Compute the dirstat numbers by doing the regular line-based diff
145 analysis, and summing the removed/added line counts. (For binary
146 files, count 64-byte chunks instead, since binary files have no
147 natural concept of lines). This is a more expensive `--dirstat`
148 behavior than the `changes` behavior, but it does count rearranged
149 lines within a file as much as other changes. The resulting output
150 is consistent with what you get from the other `--*stat` options.
152 Compute the dirstat numbers by counting the number of files changed.
153 Each changed file counts equally in the dirstat analysis. This is
154 the computationally cheapest `--dirstat` behavior, since it does
155 not have to look at the file contents at all.
157 Count changes in a child directory for the parent directory as well.
158 Note that when using `cumulative`, the sum of the percentages
159 reported may exceed 100%. The default (non-cumulative) behavior can
160 be specified with the `noncumulative` parameter.
162 An integer parameter specifies a cut-off percent (3% by default).
163 Directories contributing less than this percentage of the changes
164 are not shown in the output.
167 Example: The following will count changed files, while ignoring
168 directories with less than 10% of the total amount of changed files,
169 and accumulating child directory counts in the parent directories:
170 `--dirstat=files,10,cumulative`.
173 Output a condensed summary of extended header information
174 such as creations, renames and mode changes.
176 ifndef::git-format-patch[]
178 Synonym for `-p --stat`.
179 endif::git-format-patch[]
181 ifndef::git-format-patch[]
185 Separate the commits with NULs instead of with new newlines.
187 Also, when `--raw` or `--numstat` has been given, do not munge
188 pathnames and use NULs as output field terminators.
191 When `--raw`, `--numstat`, `--name-only` or `--name-status` has been
192 given, do not munge pathnames and use NULs as output field terminators.
195 Without this option, pathnames with "unusual" characters are quoted as
196 explained for the configuration variable `core.quotePath` (see
197 linkgit:git-config[1]).
200 Show only names of changed files.
203 Show only names and status of changed files. See the description
204 of the `--diff-filter` option on what the status letters mean.
206 --submodule[=<format>]::
207 Specify how differences in submodules are shown. When specifying
208 `--submodule=short` the 'short' format is used. This format just
209 shows the names of the commits at the beginning and end of the range.
210 When `--submodule` or `--submodule=log` is specified, the 'log'
211 format is used. This format lists the commits in the range like
212 linkgit:git-submodule[1] `summary` does. When `--submodule=diff`
213 is specified, the 'diff' format is used. This format shows an
214 inline diff of the changes in the submodule contents between the
215 commit range. Defaults to `diff.submodule` or the 'short' format
216 if the config option is unset.
220 `--color` (i.e. without '=<when>') is the same as `--color=always`.
221 '<when>' can be one of `always`, `never`, or `auto`.
223 It can be changed by the `color.ui` and `color.diff`
224 configuration settings.
228 Turn off colored diff.
230 This can be used to override configuration settings.
232 It is the same as `--color=never`.
234 --color-moved[=<mode>]::
235 Moved lines of code are colored differently.
237 It can be changed by the `diff.colorMoved` configuration setting.
239 The <mode> defaults to 'no' if the option is not given
240 and to 'zebra' if the option with no mode is given.
241 The mode must be one of:
245 Moved lines are not highlighted.
247 Is a synonym for `zebra`. This may change to a more sensible mode
250 Any line that is added in one location and was removed
251 in another location will be colored with 'color.diff.newMoved'.
252 Similarly 'color.diff.oldMoved' will be used for removed lines
253 that are added somewhere else in the diff. This mode picks up any
254 moved line, but it is not very useful in a review to determine
255 if a block of code was moved without permutation.
257 Blocks of moved code are detected greedily. The detected blocks are
258 painted using either the 'color.diff.{old,new}Moved' color or
259 'color.diff.{old,new}MovedAlternative'. The change between
260 the two colors indicates that a new block was detected. If there
261 are fewer than 3 adjacent moved lines, they are not marked up
262 as moved, but the regular colors 'color.diff.{old,new}' will be
265 Similar to 'zebra', but additional dimming of uninteresting parts
266 of moved code is performed. The bordering lines of two adjacent
267 blocks are considered interesting, the rest is uninteresting.
270 --word-diff[=<mode>]::
271 Show a word diff, using the <mode> to delimit changed words.
272 By default, words are delimited by whitespace; see
273 `--word-diff-regex` below. The <mode> defaults to 'plain', and
278 Highlight changed words using only colors. Implies `--color`.
280 Show words as `[-removed-]` and `{+added+}`. Makes no
281 attempts to escape the delimiters if they appear in the input,
282 so the output may be ambiguous.
284 Use a special line-based format intended for script
285 consumption. Added/removed/unchanged runs are printed in the
286 usual unified diff format, starting with a `+`/`-`/` `
287 character at the beginning of the line and extending to the
288 end of the line. Newlines in the input are represented by a
289 tilde `~` on a line of its own.
291 Disable word diff again.
294 Note that despite the name of the first mode, color is used to
295 highlight the changed parts in all modes if enabled.
297 --word-diff-regex=<regex>::
298 Use <regex> to decide what a word is, instead of considering
299 runs of non-whitespace to be a word. Also implies
300 `--word-diff` unless it was already enabled.
302 Every non-overlapping match of the
303 <regex> is considered a word. Anything between these matches is
304 considered whitespace and ignored(!) for the purposes of finding
305 differences. You may want to append `|[^[:space:]]` to your regular
306 expression to make sure that it matches all non-whitespace characters.
307 A match that contains a newline is silently truncated(!) at the
310 For example, `--word-diff-regex=.` will treat each character as a word
311 and, correspondingly, show differences character by character.
313 The regex can also be set via a diff driver or configuration option, see
314 linkgit:gitattributes[5] or linkgit:git-config[1]. Giving it explicitly
315 overrides any diff driver or configuration setting. Diff drivers
316 override configuration settings.
318 --color-words[=<regex>]::
319 Equivalent to `--word-diff=color` plus (if a regex was
320 specified) `--word-diff-regex=<regex>`.
321 endif::git-format-patch[]
324 Turn off rename detection, even when the configuration
325 file gives the default to do so.
327 ifndef::git-format-patch[]
329 Warn if changes introduce conflict markers or whitespace errors.
330 What are considered whitespace errors is controlled by `core.whitespace`
331 configuration. By default, trailing whitespaces (including
332 lines that solely consist of whitespaces) and a space character
333 that is immediately followed by a tab character inside the
334 initial indent of the line are considered whitespace errors.
335 Exits with non-zero status if problems are found. Not compatible
338 --ws-error-highlight=<kind>::
339 Highlight whitespace errors on lines specified by <kind>
340 in the color specified by `color.diff.whitespace`. <kind>
341 is a comma separated list of `old`, `new`, `context`. When
342 this option is not given, only whitespace errors in `new`
343 lines are highlighted. E.g. `--ws-error-highlight=new,old`
344 highlights whitespace errors on both deleted and added lines.
345 `all` can be used as a short-hand for `old,new,context`.
346 The `diff.wsErrorHighlight` configuration variable can be
347 used to specify the default behaviour.
349 endif::git-format-patch[]
352 Instead of the first handful of characters, show the full
353 pre- and post-image blob object names on the "index"
354 line when generating patch format output.
357 In addition to `--full-index`, output a binary diff that
358 can be applied with `git-apply`.
361 Instead of showing the full 40-byte hexadecimal object
362 name in diff-raw format output and diff-tree header
363 lines, show only a partial prefix. This is
364 independent of the `--full-index` option above, which controls
365 the diff-patch output format. Non default number of
366 digits can be specified with `--abbrev=<n>`.
369 --break-rewrites[=[<n>][/<m>]]::
370 Break complete rewrite changes into pairs of delete and
371 create. This serves two purposes:
373 It affects the way a change that amounts to a total rewrite of a file
374 not as a series of deletion and insertion mixed together with a very
375 few lines that happen to match textually as the context, but as a
376 single deletion of everything old followed by a single insertion of
377 everything new, and the number `m` controls this aspect of the -B
378 option (defaults to 60%). `-B/70%` specifies that less than 30% of the
379 original should remain in the result for Git to consider it a total
380 rewrite (i.e. otherwise the resulting patch will be a series of
381 deletion and insertion mixed together with context lines).
383 When used with -M, a totally-rewritten file is also considered as the
384 source of a rename (usually -M only considers a file that disappeared
385 as the source of a rename), and the number `n` controls this aspect of
386 the -B option (defaults to 50%). `-B20%` specifies that a change with
387 addition and deletion compared to 20% or more of the file's size are
388 eligible for being picked up as a possible source of a rename to
392 --find-renames[=<n>]::
397 If generating diffs, detect and report renames for each commit.
398 For following files across renames while traversing history, see
401 If `n` is specified, it is a threshold on the similarity
402 index (i.e. amount of addition/deletions compared to the
403 file's size). For example, `-M90%` means Git should consider a
404 delete/add pair to be a rename if more than 90% of the file
405 hasn't changed. Without a `%` sign, the number is to be read as
406 a fraction, with a decimal point before it. I.e., `-M5` becomes
407 0.5, and is thus the same as `-M50%`. Similarly, `-M05` is
408 the same as `-M5%`. To limit detection to exact renames, use
409 `-M100%`. The default similarity index is 50%.
412 --find-copies[=<n>]::
413 Detect copies as well as renames. See also `--find-copies-harder`.
414 If `n` is specified, it has the same meaning as for `-M<n>`.
416 --find-copies-harder::
417 For performance reasons, by default, `-C` option finds copies only
418 if the original file of the copy was modified in the same
419 changeset. This flag makes the command
420 inspect unmodified files as candidates for the source of
421 copy. This is a very expensive operation for large
422 projects, so use it with caution. Giving more than one
423 `-C` option has the same effect.
426 --irreversible-delete::
427 Omit the preimage for deletes, i.e. print only the header but not
428 the diff between the preimage and `/dev/null`. The resulting patch
429 is not meant to be applied with `patch` or `git apply`; this is
430 solely for people who want to just concentrate on reviewing the
431 text after the change. In addition, the output obviously lack
432 enough information to apply such a patch in reverse, even manually,
433 hence the name of the option.
435 When used together with `-B`, omit also the preimage in the deletion part
436 of a delete/create pair.
439 The `-M` and `-C` options require O(n^2) processing time where n
440 is the number of potential rename/copy targets. This
441 option prevents rename/copy detection from running if
442 the number of rename/copy targets exceeds the specified
445 ifndef::git-format-patch[]
446 --diff-filter=[(A|C|D|M|R|T|U|X|B)...[*]]::
447 Select only files that are Added (`A`), Copied (`C`),
448 Deleted (`D`), Modified (`M`), Renamed (`R`), have their
449 type (i.e. regular file, symlink, submodule, ...) changed (`T`),
450 are Unmerged (`U`), are
451 Unknown (`X`), or have had their pairing Broken (`B`).
452 Any combination of the filter characters (including none) can be used.
453 When `*` (All-or-none) is added to the combination, all
454 paths are selected if there is any file that matches
455 other criteria in the comparison; if there is no file
456 that matches other criteria, nothing is selected.
458 Also, these upper-case letters can be downcased to exclude. E.g.
459 `--diff-filter=ad` excludes added and deleted paths.
462 Look for differences that change the number of occurrences of
463 the specified string (i.e. addition/deletion) in a file.
464 Intended for the scripter's use.
466 It is useful when you're looking for an exact block of code (like a
467 struct), and want to know the history of that block since it first
468 came into being: use the feature iteratively to feed the interesting
469 block in the preimage back into `-S`, and keep going until you get the
470 very first version of the block.
473 Look for differences whose patch text contains added/removed
474 lines that match <regex>.
476 To illustrate the difference between `-S<regex> --pickaxe-regex` and
477 `-G<regex>`, consider a commit with the following diff in the same
481 + return !regexec(regexp, two->ptr, 1, ®match, 0);
483 - hit = !regexec(regexp, mf2.ptr, 1, ®match, 0);
486 While `git log -G"regexec\(regexp"` will show this commit, `git log
487 -S"regexec\(regexp" --pickaxe-regex` will not (because the number of
488 occurrences of that string did not change).
490 See the 'pickaxe' entry in linkgit:gitdiffcore[7] for more
494 When `-S` or `-G` finds a change, show all the changes in that
495 changeset, not just the files that contain the change
499 Treat the <string> given to `-S` as an extended POSIX regular
501 endif::git-format-patch[]
504 Control the order in which files appear in the output.
505 This overrides the `diff.orderFile` configuration variable
506 (see linkgit:git-config[1]). To cancel `diff.orderFile`,
509 The output order is determined by the order of glob patterns in
511 All files with pathnames that match the first pattern are output
512 first, all files with pathnames that match the second pattern (but not
513 the first) are output next, and so on.
514 All files with pathnames that do not match any pattern are output
515 last, as if there was an implicit match-all pattern at the end of the
517 If multiple pathnames have the same rank (they match the same pattern
518 but no earlier patterns), their output order relative to each other is
521 <orderfile> is parsed as follows:
524 - Blank lines are ignored, so they can be used as separators for
527 - Lines starting with a hash ("`#`") are ignored, so they can be used
528 for comments. Add a backslash ("`\`") to the beginning of the
529 pattern if it starts with a hash.
531 - Each other line contains a single pattern.
534 Patterns have the same syntax and semantics as patterns used for
535 fnmantch(3) without the FNM_PATHNAME flag, except a pathname also
536 matches a pattern if removing any number of the final pathname
537 components matches the pattern. For example, the pattern "`foo*bar`"
538 matches "`fooasdfbar`" and "`foo/bar/baz/asdf`" but not "`foobarx`".
540 ifndef::git-format-patch[]
542 Swap two inputs; that is, show differences from index or
543 on-disk file to tree contents.
545 --relative[=<path>]::
546 When run from a subdirectory of the project, it can be
547 told to exclude changes outside the directory and show
548 pathnames relative to it with this option. When you are
549 not in a subdirectory (e.g. in a bare repository), you
550 can name which subdirectory to make the output relative
551 to by giving a <path> as an argument.
552 endif::git-format-patch[]
556 Treat all files as text.
558 --ignore-space-at-eol::
559 Ignore changes in whitespace at EOL.
562 --ignore-space-change::
563 Ignore changes in amount of whitespace. This ignores whitespace
564 at line end, and considers all other sequences of one or
565 more whitespace characters to be equivalent.
569 Ignore whitespace when comparing lines. This ignores
570 differences even if one line has whitespace where the other
573 --ignore-blank-lines::
574 Ignore changes whose lines are all blank.
576 --inter-hunk-context=<lines>::
577 Show the context between diff hunks, up to the specified number
578 of lines, thereby fusing hunks that are close to each other.
579 Defaults to `diff.interHunkContext` or 0 if the config option
584 Show whole surrounding functions of changes.
586 ifndef::git-format-patch[]
589 Make the program exit with codes similar to diff(1).
590 That is, it exits with 1 if there were differences and
591 0 means no differences.
594 Disable all output of the program. Implies `--exit-code`.
596 endif::git-format-patch[]
599 Allow an external diff helper to be executed. If you set an
600 external diff driver with linkgit:gitattributes[5], you need
601 to use this option with linkgit:git-log[1] and friends.
604 Disallow external diff drivers.
608 Allow (or disallow) external text conversion filters to be run
609 when comparing binary files. See linkgit:gitattributes[5] for
610 details. Because textconv filters are typically a one-way
611 conversion, the resulting diff is suitable for human
612 consumption, but cannot be applied. For this reason, textconv
613 filters are enabled by default only for linkgit:git-diff[1] and
614 linkgit:git-log[1], but not for linkgit:git-format-patch[1] or
615 diff plumbing commands.
617 --ignore-submodules[=<when>]::
618 Ignore changes to submodules in the diff generation. <when> can be
619 either "none", "untracked", "dirty" or "all", which is the default.
620 Using "none" will consider the submodule modified when it either contains
621 untracked or modified files or its HEAD differs from the commit recorded
622 in the superproject and can be used to override any settings of the
623 'ignore' option in linkgit:git-config[1] or linkgit:gitmodules[5]. When
624 "untracked" is used submodules are not considered dirty when they only
625 contain untracked content (but they are still scanned for modified
626 content). Using "dirty" ignores all changes to the work tree of submodules,
627 only changes to the commits stored in the superproject are shown (this was
628 the behavior until 1.7.0). Using "all" hides all changes to submodules.
630 --src-prefix=<prefix>::
631 Show the given source prefix instead of "a/".
633 --dst-prefix=<prefix>::
634 Show the given destination prefix instead of "b/".
637 Do not show any source or destination prefix.
639 --line-prefix=<prefix>::
640 Prepend an additional prefix to every line of output.
642 --ita-invisible-in-index::
643 By default entries added by "git add -N" appear as an existing
644 empty file in "git diff" and a new file in "git diff --cached".
645 This option makes the entry appear as a new file in "git diff"
646 and non-existent in "git diff --cached". This option could be
647 reverted with `--ita-visible-in-index`. Both options are
648 experimental and could be removed in future.
650 For more detailed explanation on these common options, see also
651 linkgit:gitdiffcore[7].