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
39 the usual three. Implies `--patch`.
40 ifndef::git-format-patch[]
42 endif::git-format-patch[]
45 Output to a specific file instead of stdout.
47 --output-indicator-new=<char>::
48 --output-indicator-old=<char>::
49 --output-indicator-context=<char>::
50 Specify the character used to indicate new, old or context
51 lines in the generated patch. Normally they are '+', '-' and
54 ifndef::git-format-patch[]
57 Generate the diff in raw format.
58 ifdef::git-diff-core[]
60 endif::git-diff-core[]
63 For each commit, show a summary of changes using the raw diff
64 format. See the "RAW OUTPUT FORMAT" section of
65 linkgit:git-diff[1]. This is different from showing the log
66 itself in raw format, which you can achieve with
69 endif::git-format-patch[]
71 ifndef::git-format-patch[]
73 Synonym for `-p --raw`.
74 endif::git-format-patch[]
77 Enable the heuristic that shifts diff hunk boundaries to make patches
78 easier to read. This is the default.
80 --no-indent-heuristic::
81 Disable the indent heuristic.
84 Spend extra time to make sure the smallest possible
88 Generate a diff using the "patience diff" algorithm.
91 Generate a diff using the "histogram diff" algorithm.
94 Generate a diff using the "anchored diff" algorithm.
96 This option may be specified more than once.
98 If a line exists in both the source and destination, exists only once,
99 and starts with this text, this algorithm attempts to prevent it from
100 appearing as a deletion or addition in the output. It uses the "patience
101 diff" algorithm internally.
103 --diff-algorithm={patience|minimal|histogram|myers}::
104 Choose a diff algorithm. The variants are as follows:
108 The basic greedy diff algorithm. Currently, this is the default.
110 Spend extra time to make sure the smallest possible diff is
113 Use "patience diff" algorithm when generating patches.
115 This algorithm extends the patience algorithm to "support
116 low-occurrence common elements".
119 For instance, if you configured the `diff.algorithm` variable to a
120 non-default value and want to use the default one, then you
121 have to use `--diff-algorithm=default` option.
123 --stat[=<width>[,<name-width>[,<count>]]]::
124 Generate a diffstat. By default, as much space as necessary
125 will be used for the filename part, and the rest for the graph
126 part. Maximum width defaults to terminal width, or 80 columns
127 if not connected to a terminal, and can be overridden by
128 `<width>`. The width of the filename part can be limited by
129 giving another width `<name-width>` after a comma. The width
130 of the graph part can be limited by using
131 `--stat-graph-width=<width>` (affects all commands generating
132 a stat graph) or by setting `diff.statGraphWidth=<width>`
133 (does not affect `git format-patch`).
134 By giving a third parameter `<count>`, you can limit the
135 output to the first `<count>` lines, followed by `...` if
138 These parameters can also be set individually with `--stat-width=<width>`,
139 `--stat-name-width=<name-width>` and `--stat-count=<count>`.
142 Output a condensed summary of extended header information such
143 as file creations or deletions ("new" or "gone", optionally "+l"
144 if it's a symlink) and mode changes ("+x" or "-x" for adding
145 or removing executable bit respectively) in diffstat. The
146 information is put between the filename part and the graph
147 part. Implies `--stat`.
150 Similar to `--stat`, but shows number of added and
151 deleted lines in decimal notation and pathname without
152 abbreviation, to make it more machine friendly. For
153 binary files, outputs two `-` instead of saying
157 Output only the last line of the `--stat` format containing total
158 number of modified files, as well as number of added and deleted
161 -X[<param1,param2,...>]::
162 --dirstat[=<param1,param2,...>]::
163 Output the distribution of relative amount of changes for each
164 sub-directory. The behavior of `--dirstat` can be customized by
165 passing it a comma separated list of parameters.
166 The defaults are controlled by the `diff.dirstat` configuration
167 variable (see linkgit:git-config[1]).
168 The following parameters are available:
172 Compute the dirstat numbers by counting the lines that have been
173 removed from the source, or added to the destination. This ignores
174 the amount of pure code movements within a file. In other words,
175 rearranging lines in a file is not counted as much as other changes.
176 This is the default behavior when no parameter is given.
178 Compute the dirstat numbers by doing the regular line-based diff
179 analysis, and summing the removed/added line counts. (For binary
180 files, count 64-byte chunks instead, since binary files have no
181 natural concept of lines). This is a more expensive `--dirstat`
182 behavior than the `changes` behavior, but it does count rearranged
183 lines within a file as much as other changes. The resulting output
184 is consistent with what you get from the other `--*stat` options.
186 Compute the dirstat numbers by counting the number of files changed.
187 Each changed file counts equally in the dirstat analysis. This is
188 the computationally cheapest `--dirstat` behavior, since it does
189 not have to look at the file contents at all.
191 Count changes in a child directory for the parent directory as well.
192 Note that when using `cumulative`, the sum of the percentages
193 reported may exceed 100%. The default (non-cumulative) behavior can
194 be specified with the `noncumulative` parameter.
196 An integer parameter specifies a cut-off percent (3% by default).
197 Directories contributing less than this percentage of the changes
198 are not shown in the output.
201 Example: The following will count changed files, while ignoring
202 directories with less than 10% of the total amount of changed files,
203 and accumulating child directory counts in the parent directories:
204 `--dirstat=files,10,cumulative`.
207 Synonym for --dirstat=cumulative
209 --dirstat-by-file[=<param1,param2>...]::
210 Synonym for --dirstat=files,param1,param2...
213 Output a condensed summary of extended header information
214 such as creations, renames and mode changes.
216 ifndef::git-format-patch[]
218 Synonym for `-p --stat`.
219 endif::git-format-patch[]
221 ifndef::git-format-patch[]
225 Separate the commits with NULs instead of with new newlines.
227 Also, when `--raw` or `--numstat` has been given, do not munge
228 pathnames and use NULs as output field terminators.
231 When `--raw`, `--numstat`, `--name-only` or `--name-status` has been
232 given, do not munge pathnames and use NULs as output field terminators.
235 Without this option, pathnames with "unusual" characters are quoted as
236 explained for the configuration variable `core.quotePath` (see
237 linkgit:git-config[1]).
240 Show only names of changed files.
243 Show only names and status of changed files. See the description
244 of the `--diff-filter` option on what the status letters mean.
246 --submodule[=<format>]::
247 Specify how differences in submodules are shown. When specifying
248 `--submodule=short` the 'short' format is used. This format just
249 shows the names of the commits at the beginning and end of the range.
250 When `--submodule` or `--submodule=log` is specified, the 'log'
251 format is used. This format lists the commits in the range like
252 linkgit:git-submodule[1] `summary` does. When `--submodule=diff`
253 is specified, the 'diff' format is used. This format shows an
254 inline diff of the changes in the submodule contents between the
255 commit range. Defaults to `diff.submodule` or the 'short' format
256 if the config option is unset.
260 `--color` (i.e. without '=<when>') is the same as `--color=always`.
261 '<when>' can be one of `always`, `never`, or `auto`.
263 It can be changed by the `color.ui` and `color.diff`
264 configuration settings.
268 Turn off colored diff.
270 This can be used to override configuration settings.
272 It is the same as `--color=never`.
274 --color-moved[=<mode>]::
275 Moved lines of code are colored differently.
277 It can be changed by the `diff.colorMoved` configuration setting.
279 The <mode> defaults to 'no' if the option is not given
280 and to 'zebra' if the option with no mode is given.
281 The mode must be one of:
285 Moved lines are not highlighted.
287 Is a synonym for `zebra`. This may change to a more sensible mode
290 Any line that is added in one location and was removed
291 in another location will be colored with 'color.diff.newMoved'.
292 Similarly 'color.diff.oldMoved' will be used for removed lines
293 that are added somewhere else in the diff. This mode picks up any
294 moved line, but it is not very useful in a review to determine
295 if a block of code was moved without permutation.
297 Blocks of moved text of at least 20 alphanumeric characters
298 are detected greedily. The detected blocks are
299 painted using either the 'color.diff.{old,new}Moved' color.
300 Adjacent blocks cannot be told apart.
302 Blocks of moved text are detected as in 'blocks' mode. The blocks
303 are painted using either the 'color.diff.{old,new}Moved' color or
304 'color.diff.{old,new}MovedAlternative'. The change between
305 the two colors indicates that a new block was detected.
307 Similar to 'zebra', but additional dimming of uninteresting parts
308 of moved code is performed. The bordering lines of two adjacent
309 blocks are considered interesting, the rest is uninteresting.
310 `dimmed_zebra` is a deprecated synonym.
313 --color-moved-ws=<modes>::
314 This configures how white spaces are ignored when performing the
315 move detection for `--color-moved`.
317 It can be set by the `diff.colorMovedWS` configuration setting.
319 These modes can be given as a comma separated list:
322 ignore-space-at-eol::
323 Ignore changes in whitespace at EOL.
324 ignore-space-change::
325 Ignore changes in amount of whitespace. This ignores whitespace
326 at line end, and considers all other sequences of one or
327 more whitespace characters to be equivalent.
329 Ignore whitespace when comparing lines. This ignores differences
330 even if one line has whitespace where the other line has none.
331 allow-indentation-change::
332 Initially ignore any white spaces in the move detection, then
333 group the moved code blocks only into a block if the change in
334 whitespace is the same per line. This is incompatible with the
338 --word-diff[=<mode>]::
339 Show a word diff, using the <mode> to delimit changed words.
340 By default, words are delimited by whitespace; see
341 `--word-diff-regex` below. The <mode> defaults to 'plain', and
346 Highlight changed words using only colors. Implies `--color`.
348 Show words as `[-removed-]` and `{+added+}`. Makes no
349 attempts to escape the delimiters if they appear in the input,
350 so the output may be ambiguous.
352 Use a special line-based format intended for script
353 consumption. Added/removed/unchanged runs are printed in the
354 usual unified diff format, starting with a `+`/`-`/` `
355 character at the beginning of the line and extending to the
356 end of the line. Newlines in the input are represented by a
357 tilde `~` on a line of its own.
359 Disable word diff again.
362 Note that despite the name of the first mode, color is used to
363 highlight the changed parts in all modes if enabled.
365 --word-diff-regex=<regex>::
366 Use <regex> to decide what a word is, instead of considering
367 runs of non-whitespace to be a word. Also implies
368 `--word-diff` unless it was already enabled.
370 Every non-overlapping match of the
371 <regex> is considered a word. Anything between these matches is
372 considered whitespace and ignored(!) for the purposes of finding
373 differences. You may want to append `|[^[:space:]]` to your regular
374 expression to make sure that it matches all non-whitespace characters.
375 A match that contains a newline is silently truncated(!) at the
378 For example, `--word-diff-regex=.` will treat each character as a word
379 and, correspondingly, show differences character by character.
381 The regex can also be set via a diff driver or configuration option, see
382 linkgit:gitattributes[5] or linkgit:git-config[1]. Giving it explicitly
383 overrides any diff driver or configuration setting. Diff drivers
384 override configuration settings.
386 --color-words[=<regex>]::
387 Equivalent to `--word-diff=color` plus (if a regex was
388 specified) `--word-diff-regex=<regex>`.
389 endif::git-format-patch[]
392 Turn off rename detection, even when the configuration
393 file gives the default to do so.
395 ifndef::git-format-patch[]
397 Warn if changes introduce conflict markers or whitespace errors.
398 What are considered whitespace errors is controlled by `core.whitespace`
399 configuration. By default, trailing whitespaces (including
400 lines that consist solely of whitespaces) and a space character
401 that is immediately followed by a tab character inside the
402 initial indent of the line are considered whitespace errors.
403 Exits with non-zero status if problems are found. Not compatible
406 --ws-error-highlight=<kind>::
407 Highlight whitespace errors in the `context`, `old` or `new`
408 lines of the diff. Multiple values are separated by comma,
409 `none` resets previous values, `default` reset the list to
410 `new` and `all` is a shorthand for `old,new,context`. When
411 this option is not given, and the configuration variable
412 `diff.wsErrorHighlight` is not set, only whitespace errors in
413 `new` lines are highlighted. The whitespace errors are colored
414 with `color.diff.whitespace`.
416 endif::git-format-patch[]
419 Instead of the first handful of characters, show the full
420 pre- and post-image blob object names on the "index"
421 line when generating patch format output.
424 In addition to `--full-index`, output a binary diff that
425 can be applied with `git-apply`.
428 Instead of showing the full 40-byte hexadecimal object
429 name in diff-raw format output and diff-tree header
430 lines, show only a partial prefix. This is
431 independent of the `--full-index` option above, which controls
432 the diff-patch output format. Non default number of
433 digits can be specified with `--abbrev=<n>`.
436 --break-rewrites[=[<n>][/<m>]]::
437 Break complete rewrite changes into pairs of delete and
438 create. This serves two purposes:
440 It affects the way a change that amounts to a total rewrite of a file
441 not as a series of deletion and insertion mixed together with a very
442 few lines that happen to match textually as the context, but as a
443 single deletion of everything old followed by a single insertion of
444 everything new, and the number `m` controls this aspect of the -B
445 option (defaults to 60%). `-B/70%` specifies that less than 30% of the
446 original should remain in the result for Git to consider it a total
447 rewrite (i.e. otherwise the resulting patch will be a series of
448 deletion and insertion mixed together with context lines).
450 When used with -M, a totally-rewritten file is also considered as the
451 source of a rename (usually -M only considers a file that disappeared
452 as the source of a rename), and the number `n` controls this aspect of
453 the -B option (defaults to 50%). `-B20%` specifies that a change with
454 addition and deletion compared to 20% or more of the file's size are
455 eligible for being picked up as a possible source of a rename to
459 --find-renames[=<n>]::
464 If generating diffs, detect and report renames for each commit.
465 For following files across renames while traversing history, see
468 If `n` is specified, it is a threshold on the similarity
469 index (i.e. amount of addition/deletions compared to the
470 file's size). For example, `-M90%` means Git should consider a
471 delete/add pair to be a rename if more than 90% of the file
472 hasn't changed. Without a `%` sign, the number is to be read as
473 a fraction, with a decimal point before it. I.e., `-M5` becomes
474 0.5, and is thus the same as `-M50%`. Similarly, `-M05` is
475 the same as `-M5%`. To limit detection to exact renames, use
476 `-M100%`. The default similarity index is 50%.
479 --find-copies[=<n>]::
480 Detect copies as well as renames. See also `--find-copies-harder`.
481 If `n` is specified, it has the same meaning as for `-M<n>`.
483 --find-copies-harder::
484 For performance reasons, by default, `-C` option finds copies only
485 if the original file of the copy was modified in the same
486 changeset. This flag makes the command
487 inspect unmodified files as candidates for the source of
488 copy. This is a very expensive operation for large
489 projects, so use it with caution. Giving more than one
490 `-C` option has the same effect.
493 --irreversible-delete::
494 Omit the preimage for deletes, i.e. print only the header but not
495 the diff between the preimage and `/dev/null`. The resulting patch
496 is not meant to be applied with `patch` or `git apply`; this is
497 solely for people who want to just concentrate on reviewing the
498 text after the change. In addition, the output obviously lacks
499 enough information to apply such a patch in reverse, even manually,
500 hence the name of the option.
502 When used together with `-B`, omit also the preimage in the deletion part
503 of a delete/create pair.
506 The `-M` and `-C` options require O(n^2) processing time where n
507 is the number of potential rename/copy targets. This
508 option prevents rename/copy detection from running if
509 the number of rename/copy targets exceeds the specified
512 ifndef::git-format-patch[]
513 --diff-filter=[(A|C|D|M|R|T|U|X|B)...[*]]::
514 Select only files that are Added (`A`), Copied (`C`),
515 Deleted (`D`), Modified (`M`), Renamed (`R`), have their
516 type (i.e. regular file, symlink, submodule, ...) changed (`T`),
517 are Unmerged (`U`), are
518 Unknown (`X`), or have had their pairing Broken (`B`).
519 Any combination of the filter characters (including none) can be used.
520 When `*` (All-or-none) is added to the combination, all
521 paths are selected if there is any file that matches
522 other criteria in the comparison; if there is no file
523 that matches other criteria, nothing is selected.
525 Also, these upper-case letters can be downcased to exclude. E.g.
526 `--diff-filter=ad` excludes added and deleted paths.
528 Note that not all diffs can feature all types. For instance, diffs
529 from the index to the working tree can never have Added entries
530 (because the set of paths included in the diff is limited by what is in
531 the index). Similarly, copied and renamed entries cannot appear if
532 detection for those types is disabled.
535 Look for differences that change the number of occurrences of
536 the specified string (i.e. addition/deletion) in a file.
537 Intended for the scripter's use.
539 It is useful when you're looking for an exact block of code (like a
540 struct), and want to know the history of that block since it first
541 came into being: use the feature iteratively to feed the interesting
542 block in the preimage back into `-S`, and keep going until you get the
543 very first version of the block.
545 Binary files are searched as well.
548 Look for differences whose patch text contains added/removed
549 lines that match <regex>.
551 To illustrate the difference between `-S<regex> --pickaxe-regex` and
552 `-G<regex>`, consider a commit with the following diff in the same
556 + return !regexec(regexp, two->ptr, 1, ®match, 0);
558 - hit = !regexec(regexp, mf2.ptr, 1, ®match, 0);
561 While `git log -G"regexec\(regexp"` will show this commit, `git log
562 -S"regexec\(regexp" --pickaxe-regex` will not (because the number of
563 occurrences of that string did not change).
565 Unless `--text` is supplied patches of binary files without a textconv
566 filter will be ignored.
568 See the 'pickaxe' entry in linkgit:gitdiffcore[7] for more
571 --find-object=<object-id>::
572 Look for differences that change the number of occurrences of
573 the specified object. Similar to `-S`, just the argument is different
574 in that it doesn't search for a specific string but for a specific
577 The object can be a blob or a submodule commit. It implies the `-t` option in
578 `git-log` to also find trees.
581 When `-S` or `-G` finds a change, show all the changes in that
582 changeset, not just the files that contain the change
586 Treat the <string> given to `-S` as an extended POSIX regular
589 endif::git-format-patch[]
592 Control the order in which files appear in the output.
593 This overrides the `diff.orderFile` configuration variable
594 (see linkgit:git-config[1]). To cancel `diff.orderFile`,
597 The output order is determined by the order of glob patterns in
599 All files with pathnames that match the first pattern are output
600 first, all files with pathnames that match the second pattern (but not
601 the first) are output next, and so on.
602 All files with pathnames that do not match any pattern are output
603 last, as if there was an implicit match-all pattern at the end of the
605 If multiple pathnames have the same rank (they match the same pattern
606 but no earlier patterns), their output order relative to each other is
609 <orderfile> is parsed as follows:
612 - Blank lines are ignored, so they can be used as separators for
615 - Lines starting with a hash ("`#`") are ignored, so they can be used
616 for comments. Add a backslash ("`\`") to the beginning of the
617 pattern if it starts with a hash.
619 - Each other line contains a single pattern.
622 Patterns have the same syntax and semantics as patterns used for
623 fnmatch(3) without the FNM_PATHNAME flag, except a pathname also
624 matches a pattern if removing any number of the final pathname
625 components matches the pattern. For example, the pattern "`foo*bar`"
626 matches "`fooasdfbar`" and "`foo/bar/baz/asdf`" but not "`foobarx`".
628 ifndef::git-format-patch[]
630 Swap two inputs; that is, show differences from index or
631 on-disk file to tree contents.
633 --relative[=<path>]::
634 When run from a subdirectory of the project, it can be
635 told to exclude changes outside the directory and show
636 pathnames relative to it with this option. When you are
637 not in a subdirectory (e.g. in a bare repository), you
638 can name which subdirectory to make the output relative
639 to by giving a <path> as an argument.
640 endif::git-format-patch[]
644 Treat all files as text.
647 Ignore carriage-return at the end of line when doing a comparison.
649 --ignore-space-at-eol::
650 Ignore changes in whitespace at EOL.
653 --ignore-space-change::
654 Ignore changes in amount of whitespace. This ignores whitespace
655 at line end, and considers all other sequences of one or
656 more whitespace characters to be equivalent.
660 Ignore whitespace when comparing lines. This ignores
661 differences even if one line has whitespace where the other
664 --ignore-blank-lines::
665 Ignore changes whose lines are all blank.
667 --inter-hunk-context=<lines>::
668 Show the context between diff hunks, up to the specified number
669 of lines, thereby fusing hunks that are close to each other.
670 Defaults to `diff.interHunkContext` or 0 if the config option
675 Show whole surrounding functions of changes.
677 ifndef::git-format-patch[]
680 Make the program exit with codes similar to diff(1).
681 That is, it exits with 1 if there were differences and
682 0 means no differences.
685 Disable all output of the program. Implies `--exit-code`.
687 endif::git-format-patch[]
690 Allow an external diff helper to be executed. If you set an
691 external diff driver with linkgit:gitattributes[5], you need
692 to use this option with linkgit:git-log[1] and friends.
695 Disallow external diff drivers.
699 Allow (or disallow) external text conversion filters to be run
700 when comparing binary files. See linkgit:gitattributes[5] for
701 details. Because textconv filters are typically a one-way
702 conversion, the resulting diff is suitable for human
703 consumption, but cannot be applied. For this reason, textconv
704 filters are enabled by default only for linkgit:git-diff[1] and
705 linkgit:git-log[1], but not for linkgit:git-format-patch[1] or
706 diff plumbing commands.
708 --ignore-submodules[=<when>]::
709 Ignore changes to submodules in the diff generation. <when> can be
710 either "none", "untracked", "dirty" or "all", which is the default.
711 Using "none" will consider the submodule modified when it either contains
712 untracked or modified files or its HEAD differs from the commit recorded
713 in the superproject and can be used to override any settings of the
714 'ignore' option in linkgit:git-config[1] or linkgit:gitmodules[5]. When
715 "untracked" is used submodules are not considered dirty when they only
716 contain untracked content (but they are still scanned for modified
717 content). Using "dirty" ignores all changes to the work tree of submodules,
718 only changes to the commits stored in the superproject are shown (this was
719 the behavior until 1.7.0). Using "all" hides all changes to submodules.
721 --src-prefix=<prefix>::
722 Show the given source prefix instead of "a/".
724 --dst-prefix=<prefix>::
725 Show the given destination prefix instead of "b/".
728 Do not show any source or destination prefix.
730 --line-prefix=<prefix>::
731 Prepend an additional prefix to every line of output.
733 --ita-invisible-in-index::
734 By default entries added by "git add -N" appear as an existing
735 empty file in "git diff" and a new file in "git diff --cached".
736 This option makes the entry appear as a new file in "git diff"
737 and non-existent in "git diff --cached". This option could be
738 reverted with `--ita-visible-in-index`. Both options are
739 experimental and could be removed in future.
741 For more detailed explanation on these common options, see also
742 linkgit:gitdiffcore[7].
projects / git / blob