git-diff-files(1) Manual Page
NAME
git - diff-files - Compares files in the working tree and the cache
SYNOPSIS
git-diff-files [-p] [-q] [-r] [-z] [-B] [-M] [-C] [-R] [-O<orderfile>] [-S<string>] [—pickaxe-all] [<pattern>…]
DESCRIPTION
Compares the files in the working tree and the cache. When paths are specified, compares only those named paths. Otherwise all entries in the cache are compared. The output format is the same as "git-diff-cache" and "git-diff-tree".
OPTIONS
- -p
- generate patch (see section on generating patches).
- -q
- Remain silent even on nonexisting files
- -R
- Swap two inputs; that is, show differences from on-disk files to cache contents.
- -B
- Break complete rewrite changes into pairs of delete and create.
- -M
- Detect renames.
- -C
- Detect copies as well as renames.
- -S<string>
- Look for differences that contains the change in <string>.
- —pickaxe-all
- When -S finds a change, show all the changes in that changeset, not just the files that contains the change in <string>.
- -O<orderfile>
- Output the patch in the order specified in the <orderfile>, which has one shell glob pattern per line.
- -r
- This flag does not mean anything. It is there only to match git-diff-tree. Unlike git-diff-tree, git-diff-files always looks at all the subdirectories.
Output format
The output format from "git-diff-cache", "git-diff-tree" and "git-diff-files" is very similar.
These commands all compare two sets of things; what are compared are different:
- git-diff-cache <tree-ish>
- compares the <tree-ish> and the files on the filesystem.
- git-diff-cache —cached <tree-ish>
- compares the <tree-ish> and the cache.
- git-diff-tree [-r] <tree-ish-1> <tree-ish-2> [<pattern>…]
- compares the trees named by the two arguments.
- git-diff-files [<pattern>…]
- compares the cache and the files on the filesystem.
An output line is formatted this way:
in-place edit :100644 100644 bcd1234… 0123456… M file0 copy-edit :100644 100644 abcd123… 1234567… C68 file1 file2 rename-edit :100644 100644 abcd123… 1234567… R86 file1 file3 create :000000 100644 0000000… 1234567… N file4 delete :100644 000000 1234567… 0000000… D file5 unmerged :000000 000000 0000000… 0000000… U file6
That is, from the left to the right:
(1) a colon. (2) mode for "src"; 000000 if creation or unmerged. (3) a space. (4) mode for "dst"; 000000 if deletion or unmerged. (5) a space. (6) sha1 for "src"; 0{40} if creation or unmerged. (7) a space. (8) sha1 for "dst"; 0{40} if creation, unmerged or "look at work tree". (9) a space. (10) status, followed by optional "score" number. (11) a tab or a NUL when '-z' option is used. (12) path for "src" (13) a tab or a NUL when '-z' option is used; only exists for C or R. (14) path for "dst"; only exists for C or R. (15) an LF or a NUL when '-z' option is used, to terminate the record.
<sha1> is shown as all 0's if new is a file on the filesystem and it is out of sync with the cache. Example:
:100644 100644 5be4a4...... 000000...... M file.c
Generating patches with -p
When "git-diff-cache", "git-diff-tree", or "git-diff-files" are run with a -p option, they do not produce the output described above; instead they produce a patch file.
The patch generation can be customized at two levels. This customization also applies to "git-diff-helper".
-
When the environment variable GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF is not set, these commands internally invoke "diff" like this:
diff -L a/<path> -L a/<path> -pu <old> <new>
For added files, /dev/null is used for <old>. For removed files, /dev/null is used for <new>
The "diff" formatting options can be customized via the environment variable GIT_DIFF_OPTS. For example, if you prefer context diff:
GIT_DIFF_OPTS=-c git-diff-cache -p $(cat .git/HEAD)
-
When the environment variable GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF is set, the program named by it is called, instead of the diff invocation described above.
For a path that is added, removed, or modified, GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF is called with 7 parameters:
path old-file old-hex old-mode new-file new-hex new-mode
where:
<old|new>-file are files GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF can use to read the contents of <old|ne>, <old|new>-hex are the 40-hexdigit SHA1 hashes, <old|new>-mode are the octal representation of the file modes. The file parameters can point at the user's working file (e.g. new-file in "git-diff-files"), /dev/null (e.g. old-file when a new file is added), or a temporary file (e.g. old-file in the cache). GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF should not worry about unlinking the temporary file --- it is removed when GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF exits.
For a path that is unmerged, GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF is called with 1 parameter, <path>.
Git specific extention to diff format
What -p option produces is slightly different from the traditional diff format.
(1) It is preceeded with a "git diff" header, that looks like this:
diff --git a/file1 b/file2
The a/ and b/ filenames are the same unless rename/copy is involved. Especially, even for a creation or a deletion, /dev/null is _not_ used in place of a/ or b/ filename.
When rename/copy is involved, file1 and file2 shows the name of the source file of the rename/copy and the name of the file that rename/copy produces, respectively.
(2) It is followed by extended header lines that are one or more of:
old mode <mode> new mode <mode> deleted file mode <mode> new file mode <mode> copy from <path> copy to <path> rename from <path> rename to <path> similarity index <number> dissimilarity index <number>
Author
Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
Documentation
Documentation by David Greaves, Junio C Hamano and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org>.
GIT
Part of the git(7) suite