]> git.ipfire.org Git - thirdparty/git.git/blob - Documentation/diff-options.txt
Merge branch 'en/ort-perf-batch-9'
[thirdparty/git.git] / Documentation / diff-options.txt
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.
6
7 ifndef::git-format-patch[]
8 ifndef::git-diff[]
9 ifndef::git-log[]
10 :git-diff-core: 1
11 endif::git-log[]
12 endif::git-diff[]
13 endif::git-format-patch[]
14
15 ifdef::git-format-patch[]
16 -p::
17 --no-stat::
18 Generate plain patches without any diffstats.
19 endif::git-format-patch[]
20
21 ifndef::git-format-patch[]
22 -p::
23 -u::
24 --patch::
25 Generate patch (see section on generating patches).
26 ifdef::git-diff[]
27 This is the default.
28 endif::git-diff[]
29
30 -s::
31 --no-patch::
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[]
35
36 ifdef::git-log[]
37 --diff-merges=(off|none|first-parent|1|separate|m|combined|c|dense-combined|cc)::
38 --no-diff-merges::
39 Specify diff format to be used for merge commits. Default is
40 {diff-merges-default} unless `--first-parent` is in use, in which case
41 `first-parent` is the default.
42 +
43 --diff-merges=(off|none):::
44 --no-diff-merges:::
45 Disable output of diffs for merge commits. Useful to override
46 implied value.
47 +
48 --diff-merges=first-parent:::
49 --diff-merges=1:::
50 This option makes merge commits show the full diff with
51 respect to the first parent only.
52 +
53 --diff-merges=separate:::
54 --diff-merges=m:::
55 -m:::
56 This makes merge commits show the full diff with respect to
57 each of the parents. Separate log entry and diff is generated
58 for each parent. `-m` doesn't produce any output without `-p`.
59 +
60 --diff-merges=combined:::
61 --diff-merges=c:::
62 -c:::
63 With this option, diff output for a merge commit shows the
64 differences from each of the parents to the merge result
65 simultaneously instead of showing pairwise diff between a
66 parent and the result one at a time. Furthermore, it lists
67 only files which were modified from all parents. `-c` implies
68 `-p`.
69 +
70 --diff-merges=dense-combined:::
71 --diff-merges=cc:::
72 --cc:::
73 With this option the output produced by
74 `--diff-merges=combined` is further compressed by omitting
75 uninteresting hunks whose contents in the parents have only
76 two variants and the merge result picks one of them without
77 modification. `--cc` implies `-p`.
78
79 --combined-all-paths::
80 This flag causes combined diffs (used for merge commits) to
81 list the name of the file from all parents. It thus only has
82 effect when `--diff-merges=[dense-]combined` is in use, and
83 is likely only useful if filename changes are detected (i.e.
84 when either rename or copy detection have been requested).
85 endif::git-log[]
86
87 -U<n>::
88 --unified=<n>::
89 Generate diffs with <n> lines of context instead of
90 the usual three.
91 ifndef::git-format-patch[]
92 Implies `--patch`.
93 endif::git-format-patch[]
94
95 --output=<file>::
96 Output to a specific file instead of stdout.
97
98 --output-indicator-new=<char>::
99 --output-indicator-old=<char>::
100 --output-indicator-context=<char>::
101 Specify the character used to indicate new, old or context
102 lines in the generated patch. Normally they are '+', '-' and
103 ' ' respectively.
104
105 ifndef::git-format-patch[]
106 --raw::
107 ifndef::git-log[]
108 Generate the diff in raw format.
109 ifdef::git-diff-core[]
110 This is the default.
111 endif::git-diff-core[]
112 endif::git-log[]
113 ifdef::git-log[]
114 For each commit, show a summary of changes using the raw diff
115 format. See the "RAW OUTPUT FORMAT" section of
116 linkgit:git-diff[1]. This is different from showing the log
117 itself in raw format, which you can achieve with
118 `--format=raw`.
119 endif::git-log[]
120 endif::git-format-patch[]
121
122 ifndef::git-format-patch[]
123 --patch-with-raw::
124 Synonym for `-p --raw`.
125 endif::git-format-patch[]
126
127 ifdef::git-log[]
128 -t::
129 Show the tree objects in the diff output.
130 endif::git-log[]
131
132 --indent-heuristic::
133 Enable the heuristic that shifts diff hunk boundaries to make patches
134 easier to read. This is the default.
135
136 --no-indent-heuristic::
137 Disable the indent heuristic.
138
139 --minimal::
140 Spend extra time to make sure the smallest possible
141 diff is produced.
142
143 --patience::
144 Generate a diff using the "patience diff" algorithm.
145
146 --histogram::
147 Generate a diff using the "histogram diff" algorithm.
148
149 --anchored=<text>::
150 Generate a diff using the "anchored diff" algorithm.
151 +
152 This option may be specified more than once.
153 +
154 If a line exists in both the source and destination, exists only once,
155 and starts with this text, this algorithm attempts to prevent it from
156 appearing as a deletion or addition in the output. It uses the "patience
157 diff" algorithm internally.
158
159 --diff-algorithm={patience|minimal|histogram|myers}::
160 Choose a diff algorithm. The variants are as follows:
161 +
162 --
163 `default`, `myers`;;
164 The basic greedy diff algorithm. Currently, this is the default.
165 `minimal`;;
166 Spend extra time to make sure the smallest possible diff is
167 produced.
168 `patience`;;
169 Use "patience diff" algorithm when generating patches.
170 `histogram`;;
171 This algorithm extends the patience algorithm to "support
172 low-occurrence common elements".
173 --
174 +
175 For instance, if you configured the `diff.algorithm` variable to a
176 non-default value and want to use the default one, then you
177 have to use `--diff-algorithm=default` option.
178
179 --stat[=<width>[,<name-width>[,<count>]]]::
180 Generate a diffstat. By default, as much space as necessary
181 will be used for the filename part, and the rest for the graph
182 part. Maximum width defaults to terminal width, or 80 columns
183 if not connected to a terminal, and can be overridden by
184 `<width>`. The width of the filename part can be limited by
185 giving another width `<name-width>` after a comma. The width
186 of the graph part can be limited by using
187 `--stat-graph-width=<width>` (affects all commands generating
188 a stat graph) or by setting `diff.statGraphWidth=<width>`
189 (does not affect `git format-patch`).
190 By giving a third parameter `<count>`, you can limit the
191 output to the first `<count>` lines, followed by `...` if
192 there are more.
193 +
194 These parameters can also be set individually with `--stat-width=<width>`,
195 `--stat-name-width=<name-width>` and `--stat-count=<count>`.
196
197 --compact-summary::
198 Output a condensed summary of extended header information such
199 as file creations or deletions ("new" or "gone", optionally "+l"
200 if it's a symlink) and mode changes ("+x" or "-x" for adding
201 or removing executable bit respectively) in diffstat. The
202 information is put between the filename part and the graph
203 part. Implies `--stat`.
204
205 --numstat::
206 Similar to `--stat`, but shows number of added and
207 deleted lines in decimal notation and pathname without
208 abbreviation, to make it more machine friendly. For
209 binary files, outputs two `-` instead of saying
210 `0 0`.
211
212 --shortstat::
213 Output only the last line of the `--stat` format containing total
214 number of modified files, as well as number of added and deleted
215 lines.
216
217 -X[<param1,param2,...>]::
218 --dirstat[=<param1,param2,...>]::
219 Output the distribution of relative amount of changes for each
220 sub-directory. The behavior of `--dirstat` can be customized by
221 passing it a comma separated list of parameters.
222 The defaults are controlled by the `diff.dirstat` configuration
223 variable (see linkgit:git-config[1]).
224 The following parameters are available:
225 +
226 --
227 `changes`;;
228 Compute the dirstat numbers by counting the lines that have been
229 removed from the source, or added to the destination. This ignores
230 the amount of pure code movements within a file. In other words,
231 rearranging lines in a file is not counted as much as other changes.
232 This is the default behavior when no parameter is given.
233 `lines`;;
234 Compute the dirstat numbers by doing the regular line-based diff
235 analysis, and summing the removed/added line counts. (For binary
236 files, count 64-byte chunks instead, since binary files have no
237 natural concept of lines). This is a more expensive `--dirstat`
238 behavior than the `changes` behavior, but it does count rearranged
239 lines within a file as much as other changes. The resulting output
240 is consistent with what you get from the other `--*stat` options.
241 `files`;;
242 Compute the dirstat numbers by counting the number of files changed.
243 Each changed file counts equally in the dirstat analysis. This is
244 the computationally cheapest `--dirstat` behavior, since it does
245 not have to look at the file contents at all.
246 `cumulative`;;
247 Count changes in a child directory for the parent directory as well.
248 Note that when using `cumulative`, the sum of the percentages
249 reported may exceed 100%. The default (non-cumulative) behavior can
250 be specified with the `noncumulative` parameter.
251 <limit>;;
252 An integer parameter specifies a cut-off percent (3% by default).
253 Directories contributing less than this percentage of the changes
254 are not shown in the output.
255 --
256 +
257 Example: The following will count changed files, while ignoring
258 directories with less than 10% of the total amount of changed files,
259 and accumulating child directory counts in the parent directories:
260 `--dirstat=files,10,cumulative`.
261
262 --cumulative::
263 Synonym for --dirstat=cumulative
264
265 --dirstat-by-file[=<param1,param2>...]::
266 Synonym for --dirstat=files,param1,param2...
267
268 --summary::
269 Output a condensed summary of extended header information
270 such as creations, renames and mode changes.
271
272 ifndef::git-format-patch[]
273 --patch-with-stat::
274 Synonym for `-p --stat`.
275 endif::git-format-patch[]
276
277 ifndef::git-format-patch[]
278
279 -z::
280 ifdef::git-log[]
281 Separate the commits with NULs instead of with new newlines.
282 +
283 Also, when `--raw` or `--numstat` has been given, do not munge
284 pathnames and use NULs as output field terminators.
285 endif::git-log[]
286 ifndef::git-log[]
287 When `--raw`, `--numstat`, `--name-only` or `--name-status` has been
288 given, do not munge pathnames and use NULs as output field terminators.
289 endif::git-log[]
290 +
291 Without this option, pathnames with "unusual" characters are quoted as
292 explained for the configuration variable `core.quotePath` (see
293 linkgit:git-config[1]).
294
295 --name-only::
296 Show only names of changed files.
297
298 --name-status::
299 Show only names and status of changed files. See the description
300 of the `--diff-filter` option on what the status letters mean.
301
302 --submodule[=<format>]::
303 Specify how differences in submodules are shown. When specifying
304 `--submodule=short` the 'short' format is used. This format just
305 shows the names of the commits at the beginning and end of the range.
306 When `--submodule` or `--submodule=log` is specified, the 'log'
307 format is used. This format lists the commits in the range like
308 linkgit:git-submodule[1] `summary` does. When `--submodule=diff`
309 is specified, the 'diff' format is used. This format shows an
310 inline diff of the changes in the submodule contents between the
311 commit range. Defaults to `diff.submodule` or the 'short' format
312 if the config option is unset.
313
314 --color[=<when>]::
315 Show colored diff.
316 `--color` (i.e. without '=<when>') is the same as `--color=always`.
317 '<when>' can be one of `always`, `never`, or `auto`.
318 ifdef::git-diff[]
319 It can be changed by the `color.ui` and `color.diff`
320 configuration settings.
321 endif::git-diff[]
322
323 --no-color::
324 Turn off colored diff.
325 ifdef::git-diff[]
326 This can be used to override configuration settings.
327 endif::git-diff[]
328 It is the same as `--color=never`.
329
330 --color-moved[=<mode>]::
331 Moved lines of code are colored differently.
332 ifdef::git-diff[]
333 It can be changed by the `diff.colorMoved` configuration setting.
334 endif::git-diff[]
335 The <mode> defaults to 'no' if the option is not given
336 and to 'zebra' if the option with no mode is given.
337 The mode must be one of:
338 +
339 --
340 no::
341 Moved lines are not highlighted.
342 default::
343 Is a synonym for `zebra`. This may change to a more sensible mode
344 in the future.
345 plain::
346 Any line that is added in one location and was removed
347 in another location will be colored with 'color.diff.newMoved'.
348 Similarly 'color.diff.oldMoved' will be used for removed lines
349 that are added somewhere else in the diff. This mode picks up any
350 moved line, but it is not very useful in a review to determine
351 if a block of code was moved without permutation.
352 blocks::
353 Blocks of moved text of at least 20 alphanumeric characters
354 are detected greedily. The detected blocks are
355 painted using either the 'color.diff.{old,new}Moved' color.
356 Adjacent blocks cannot be told apart.
357 zebra::
358 Blocks of moved text are detected as in 'blocks' mode. The blocks
359 are painted using either the 'color.diff.{old,new}Moved' color or
360 'color.diff.{old,new}MovedAlternative'. The change between
361 the two colors indicates that a new block was detected.
362 dimmed-zebra::
363 Similar to 'zebra', but additional dimming of uninteresting parts
364 of moved code is performed. The bordering lines of two adjacent
365 blocks are considered interesting, the rest is uninteresting.
366 `dimmed_zebra` is a deprecated synonym.
367 --
368
369 --no-color-moved::
370 Turn off move detection. This can be used to override configuration
371 settings. It is the same as `--color-moved=no`.
372
373 --color-moved-ws=<modes>::
374 This configures how whitespace is ignored when performing the
375 move detection for `--color-moved`.
376 ifdef::git-diff[]
377 It can be set by the `diff.colorMovedWS` configuration setting.
378 endif::git-diff[]
379 These modes can be given as a comma separated list:
380 +
381 --
382 no::
383 Do not ignore whitespace when performing move detection.
384 ignore-space-at-eol::
385 Ignore changes in whitespace at EOL.
386 ignore-space-change::
387 Ignore changes in amount of whitespace. This ignores whitespace
388 at line end, and considers all other sequences of one or
389 more whitespace characters to be equivalent.
390 ignore-all-space::
391 Ignore whitespace when comparing lines. This ignores differences
392 even if one line has whitespace where the other line has none.
393 allow-indentation-change::
394 Initially ignore any whitespace in the move detection, then
395 group the moved code blocks only into a block if the change in
396 whitespace is the same per line. This is incompatible with the
397 other modes.
398 --
399
400 --no-color-moved-ws::
401 Do not ignore whitespace when performing move detection. This can be
402 used to override configuration settings. It is the same as
403 `--color-moved-ws=no`.
404
405 --word-diff[=<mode>]::
406 Show a word diff, using the <mode> to delimit changed words.
407 By default, words are delimited by whitespace; see
408 `--word-diff-regex` below. The <mode> defaults to 'plain', and
409 must be one of:
410 +
411 --
412 color::
413 Highlight changed words using only colors. Implies `--color`.
414 plain::
415 Show words as `[-removed-]` and `{+added+}`. Makes no
416 attempts to escape the delimiters if they appear in the input,
417 so the output may be ambiguous.
418 porcelain::
419 Use a special line-based format intended for script
420 consumption. Added/removed/unchanged runs are printed in the
421 usual unified diff format, starting with a `+`/`-`/` `
422 character at the beginning of the line and extending to the
423 end of the line. Newlines in the input are represented by a
424 tilde `~` on a line of its own.
425 none::
426 Disable word diff again.
427 --
428 +
429 Note that despite the name of the first mode, color is used to
430 highlight the changed parts in all modes if enabled.
431
432 --word-diff-regex=<regex>::
433 Use <regex> to decide what a word is, instead of considering
434 runs of non-whitespace to be a word. Also implies
435 `--word-diff` unless it was already enabled.
436 +
437 Every non-overlapping match of the
438 <regex> is considered a word. Anything between these matches is
439 considered whitespace and ignored(!) for the purposes of finding
440 differences. You may want to append `|[^[:space:]]` to your regular
441 expression to make sure that it matches all non-whitespace characters.
442 A match that contains a newline is silently truncated(!) at the
443 newline.
444 +
445 For example, `--word-diff-regex=.` will treat each character as a word
446 and, correspondingly, show differences character by character.
447 +
448 The regex can also be set via a diff driver or configuration option, see
449 linkgit:gitattributes[5] or linkgit:git-config[1]. Giving it explicitly
450 overrides any diff driver or configuration setting. Diff drivers
451 override configuration settings.
452
453 --color-words[=<regex>]::
454 Equivalent to `--word-diff=color` plus (if a regex was
455 specified) `--word-diff-regex=<regex>`.
456 endif::git-format-patch[]
457
458 --no-renames::
459 Turn off rename detection, even when the configuration
460 file gives the default to do so.
461
462 --[no-]rename-empty::
463 Whether to use empty blobs as rename source.
464
465 ifndef::git-format-patch[]
466 --check::
467 Warn if changes introduce conflict markers or whitespace errors.
468 What are considered whitespace errors is controlled by `core.whitespace`
469 configuration. By default, trailing whitespaces (including
470 lines that consist solely of whitespaces) and a space character
471 that is immediately followed by a tab character inside the
472 initial indent of the line are considered whitespace errors.
473 Exits with non-zero status if problems are found. Not compatible
474 with --exit-code.
475
476 --ws-error-highlight=<kind>::
477 Highlight whitespace errors in the `context`, `old` or `new`
478 lines of the diff. Multiple values are separated by comma,
479 `none` resets previous values, `default` reset the list to
480 `new` and `all` is a shorthand for `old,new,context`. When
481 this option is not given, and the configuration variable
482 `diff.wsErrorHighlight` is not set, only whitespace errors in
483 `new` lines are highlighted. The whitespace errors are colored
484 with `color.diff.whitespace`.
485
486 endif::git-format-patch[]
487
488 --full-index::
489 Instead of the first handful of characters, show the full
490 pre- and post-image blob object names on the "index"
491 line when generating patch format output.
492
493 --binary::
494 In addition to `--full-index`, output a binary diff that
495 can be applied with `git-apply`.
496 ifndef::git-format-patch[]
497 Implies `--patch`.
498 endif::git-format-patch[]
499
500 --abbrev[=<n>]::
501 Instead of showing the full 40-byte hexadecimal object
502 name in diff-raw format output and diff-tree header
503 lines, show the shortest prefix that is at least '<n>'
504 hexdigits long that uniquely refers the object.
505 In diff-patch output format, `--full-index` takes higher
506 precedence, i.e. if `--full-index` is specified, full blob
507 names will be shown regardless of `--abbrev`.
508 Non default number of digits can be specified with `--abbrev=<n>`.
509
510 -B[<n>][/<m>]::
511 --break-rewrites[=[<n>][/<m>]]::
512 Break complete rewrite changes into pairs of delete and
513 create. This serves two purposes:
514 +
515 It affects the way a change that amounts to a total rewrite of a file
516 not as a series of deletion and insertion mixed together with a very
517 few lines that happen to match textually as the context, but as a
518 single deletion of everything old followed by a single insertion of
519 everything new, and the number `m` controls this aspect of the -B
520 option (defaults to 60%). `-B/70%` specifies that less than 30% of the
521 original should remain in the result for Git to consider it a total
522 rewrite (i.e. otherwise the resulting patch will be a series of
523 deletion and insertion mixed together with context lines).
524 +
525 When used with -M, a totally-rewritten file is also considered as the
526 source of a rename (usually -M only considers a file that disappeared
527 as the source of a rename), and the number `n` controls this aspect of
528 the -B option (defaults to 50%). `-B20%` specifies that a change with
529 addition and deletion compared to 20% or more of the file's size are
530 eligible for being picked up as a possible source of a rename to
531 another file.
532
533 -M[<n>]::
534 --find-renames[=<n>]::
535 ifndef::git-log[]
536 Detect renames.
537 endif::git-log[]
538 ifdef::git-log[]
539 If generating diffs, detect and report renames for each commit.
540 For following files across renames while traversing history, see
541 `--follow`.
542 endif::git-log[]
543 If `n` is specified, it is a threshold on the similarity
544 index (i.e. amount of addition/deletions compared to the
545 file's size). For example, `-M90%` means Git should consider a
546 delete/add pair to be a rename if more than 90% of the file
547 hasn't changed. Without a `%` sign, the number is to be read as
548 a fraction, with a decimal point before it. I.e., `-M5` becomes
549 0.5, and is thus the same as `-M50%`. Similarly, `-M05` is
550 the same as `-M5%`. To limit detection to exact renames, use
551 `-M100%`. The default similarity index is 50%.
552
553 -C[<n>]::
554 --find-copies[=<n>]::
555 Detect copies as well as renames. See also `--find-copies-harder`.
556 If `n` is specified, it has the same meaning as for `-M<n>`.
557
558 --find-copies-harder::
559 For performance reasons, by default, `-C` option finds copies only
560 if the original file of the copy was modified in the same
561 changeset. This flag makes the command
562 inspect unmodified files as candidates for the source of
563 copy. This is a very expensive operation for large
564 projects, so use it with caution. Giving more than one
565 `-C` option has the same effect.
566
567 -D::
568 --irreversible-delete::
569 Omit the preimage for deletes, i.e. print only the header but not
570 the diff between the preimage and `/dev/null`. The resulting patch
571 is not meant to be applied with `patch` or `git apply`; this is
572 solely for people who want to just concentrate on reviewing the
573 text after the change. In addition, the output obviously lacks
574 enough information to apply such a patch in reverse, even manually,
575 hence the name of the option.
576 +
577 When used together with `-B`, omit also the preimage in the deletion part
578 of a delete/create pair.
579
580 -l<num>::
581 The `-M` and `-C` options require O(n^2) processing time where n
582 is the number of potential rename/copy targets. This
583 option prevents rename/copy detection from running if
584 the number of rename/copy targets exceeds the specified
585 number.
586
587 ifndef::git-format-patch[]
588 --diff-filter=[(A|C|D|M|R|T|U|X|B)...[*]]::
589 Select only files that are Added (`A`), Copied (`C`),
590 Deleted (`D`), Modified (`M`), Renamed (`R`), have their
591 type (i.e. regular file, symlink, submodule, ...) changed (`T`),
592 are Unmerged (`U`), are
593 Unknown (`X`), or have had their pairing Broken (`B`).
594 Any combination of the filter characters (including none) can be used.
595 When `*` (All-or-none) is added to the combination, all
596 paths are selected if there is any file that matches
597 other criteria in the comparison; if there is no file
598 that matches other criteria, nothing is selected.
599 +
600 Also, these upper-case letters can be downcased to exclude. E.g.
601 `--diff-filter=ad` excludes added and deleted paths.
602 +
603 Note that not all diffs can feature all types. For instance, diffs
604 from the index to the working tree can never have Added entries
605 (because the set of paths included in the diff is limited by what is in
606 the index). Similarly, copied and renamed entries cannot appear if
607 detection for those types is disabled.
608
609 -S<string>::
610 Look for differences that change the number of occurrences of
611 the specified string (i.e. addition/deletion) in a file.
612 Intended for the scripter's use.
613 +
614 It is useful when you're looking for an exact block of code (like a
615 struct), and want to know the history of that block since it first
616 came into being: use the feature iteratively to feed the interesting
617 block in the preimage back into `-S`, and keep going until you get the
618 very first version of the block.
619 +
620 Binary files are searched as well.
621
622 -G<regex>::
623 Look for differences whose patch text contains added/removed
624 lines that match <regex>.
625 +
626 To illustrate the difference between `-S<regex> --pickaxe-regex` and
627 `-G<regex>`, consider a commit with the following diff in the same
628 file:
629 +
630 ----
631 + return frotz(nitfol, two->ptr, 1, 0);
632 ...
633 - hit = frotz(nitfol, mf2.ptr, 1, 0);
634 ----
635 +
636 While `git log -G"frotz\(nitfol"` will show this commit, `git log
637 -S"frotz\(nitfol" --pickaxe-regex` will not (because the number of
638 occurrences of that string did not change).
639 +
640 Unless `--text` is supplied patches of binary files without a textconv
641 filter will be ignored.
642 +
643 See the 'pickaxe' entry in linkgit:gitdiffcore[7] for more
644 information.
645
646 --find-object=<object-id>::
647 Look for differences that change the number of occurrences of
648 the specified object. Similar to `-S`, just the argument is different
649 in that it doesn't search for a specific string but for a specific
650 object id.
651 +
652 The object can be a blob or a submodule commit. It implies the `-t` option in
653 `git-log` to also find trees.
654
655 --pickaxe-all::
656 When `-S` or `-G` finds a change, show all the changes in that
657 changeset, not just the files that contain the change
658 in <string>.
659
660 --pickaxe-regex::
661 Treat the <string> given to `-S` as an extended POSIX regular
662 expression to match.
663
664 endif::git-format-patch[]
665
666 -O<orderfile>::
667 Control the order in which files appear in the output.
668 This overrides the `diff.orderFile` configuration variable
669 (see linkgit:git-config[1]). To cancel `diff.orderFile`,
670 use `-O/dev/null`.
671 +
672 The output order is determined by the order of glob patterns in
673 <orderfile>.
674 All files with pathnames that match the first pattern are output
675 first, all files with pathnames that match the second pattern (but not
676 the first) are output next, and so on.
677 All files with pathnames that do not match any pattern are output
678 last, as if there was an implicit match-all pattern at the end of the
679 file.
680 If multiple pathnames have the same rank (they match the same pattern
681 but no earlier patterns), their output order relative to each other is
682 the normal order.
683 +
684 <orderfile> is parsed as follows:
685 +
686 --
687 - Blank lines are ignored, so they can be used as separators for
688 readability.
689
690 - Lines starting with a hash ("`#`") are ignored, so they can be used
691 for comments. Add a backslash ("`\`") to the beginning of the
692 pattern if it starts with a hash.
693
694 - Each other line contains a single pattern.
695 --
696 +
697 Patterns have the same syntax and semantics as patterns used for
698 fnmatch(3) without the FNM_PATHNAME flag, except a pathname also
699 matches a pattern if removing any number of the final pathname
700 components matches the pattern. For example, the pattern "`foo*bar`"
701 matches "`fooasdfbar`" and "`foo/bar/baz/asdf`" but not "`foobarx`".
702
703 --skip-to=<file>::
704 --rotate-to=<file>::
705 Discard the files before the named <file> from the output
706 (i.e. 'skip to'), or move them to the end of the output
707 (i.e. 'rotate to'). These were invented primarily for use
708 of the `git difftool` command, and may not be very useful
709 otherwise.
710
711 ifndef::git-format-patch[]
712 -R::
713 Swap two inputs; that is, show differences from index or
714 on-disk file to tree contents.
715 endif::git-format-patch[]
716
717 --relative[=<path>]::
718 --no-relative::
719 When run from a subdirectory of the project, it can be
720 told to exclude changes outside the directory and show
721 pathnames relative to it with this option. When you are
722 not in a subdirectory (e.g. in a bare repository), you
723 can name which subdirectory to make the output relative
724 to by giving a <path> as an argument.
725 `--no-relative` can be used to countermand both `diff.relative` config
726 option and previous `--relative`.
727
728 -a::
729 --text::
730 Treat all files as text.
731
732 --ignore-cr-at-eol::
733 Ignore carriage-return at the end of line when doing a comparison.
734
735 --ignore-space-at-eol::
736 Ignore changes in whitespace at EOL.
737
738 -b::
739 --ignore-space-change::
740 Ignore changes in amount of whitespace. This ignores whitespace
741 at line end, and considers all other sequences of one or
742 more whitespace characters to be equivalent.
743
744 -w::
745 --ignore-all-space::
746 Ignore whitespace when comparing lines. This ignores
747 differences even if one line has whitespace where the other
748 line has none.
749
750 --ignore-blank-lines::
751 Ignore changes whose lines are all blank.
752
753 -I<regex>::
754 --ignore-matching-lines=<regex>::
755 Ignore changes whose all lines match <regex>. This option may
756 be specified more than once.
757
758 --inter-hunk-context=<lines>::
759 Show the context between diff hunks, up to the specified number
760 of lines, thereby fusing hunks that are close to each other.
761 Defaults to `diff.interHunkContext` or 0 if the config option
762 is unset.
763
764 -W::
765 --function-context::
766 Show whole function as context lines for each change.
767 The function names are determined in the same way as
768 `git diff` works out patch hunk headers (see 'Defining a
769 custom hunk-header' in linkgit:gitattributes[5]).
770
771 ifndef::git-format-patch[]
772 ifndef::git-log[]
773 --exit-code::
774 Make the program exit with codes similar to diff(1).
775 That is, it exits with 1 if there were differences and
776 0 means no differences.
777
778 --quiet::
779 Disable all output of the program. Implies `--exit-code`.
780 endif::git-log[]
781 endif::git-format-patch[]
782
783 --ext-diff::
784 Allow an external diff helper to be executed. If you set an
785 external diff driver with linkgit:gitattributes[5], you need
786 to use this option with linkgit:git-log[1] and friends.
787
788 --no-ext-diff::
789 Disallow external diff drivers.
790
791 --textconv::
792 --no-textconv::
793 Allow (or disallow) external text conversion filters to be run
794 when comparing binary files. See linkgit:gitattributes[5] for
795 details. Because textconv filters are typically a one-way
796 conversion, the resulting diff is suitable for human
797 consumption, but cannot be applied. For this reason, textconv
798 filters are enabled by default only for linkgit:git-diff[1] and
799 linkgit:git-log[1], but not for linkgit:git-format-patch[1] or
800 diff plumbing commands.
801
802 --ignore-submodules[=<when>]::
803 Ignore changes to submodules in the diff generation. <when> can be
804 either "none", "untracked", "dirty" or "all", which is the default.
805 Using "none" will consider the submodule modified when it either contains
806 untracked or modified files or its HEAD differs from the commit recorded
807 in the superproject and can be used to override any settings of the
808 'ignore' option in linkgit:git-config[1] or linkgit:gitmodules[5]. When
809 "untracked" is used submodules are not considered dirty when they only
810 contain untracked content (but they are still scanned for modified
811 content). Using "dirty" ignores all changes to the work tree of submodules,
812 only changes to the commits stored in the superproject are shown (this was
813 the behavior until 1.7.0). Using "all" hides all changes to submodules.
814
815 --src-prefix=<prefix>::
816 Show the given source prefix instead of "a/".
817
818 --dst-prefix=<prefix>::
819 Show the given destination prefix instead of "b/".
820
821 --no-prefix::
822 Do not show any source or destination prefix.
823
824 --line-prefix=<prefix>::
825 Prepend an additional prefix to every line of output.
826
827 --ita-invisible-in-index::
828 By default entries added by "git add -N" appear as an existing
829 empty file in "git diff" and a new file in "git diff --cached".
830 This option makes the entry appear as a new file in "git diff"
831 and non-existent in "git diff --cached". This option could be
832 reverted with `--ita-visible-in-index`. Both options are
833 experimental and could be removed in future.
834
835 For more detailed explanation on these common options, see also
836 linkgit:gitdiffcore[7].