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         Generate patches without diffstat.
  18 endif::git-format-patch[]
  19
  20 ifndef::git-format-patch[]
  21 -p::
  22         Generate patch (see section on generating patches).
  23         {git-diff? This is the default.}
  24 endif::git-format-patch[]
  25
  26 -u::
  27         Synonym for "-p".
  28
  29 -U<n>::
  30         Shorthand for "--unified=<n>".
  31
  32 --unified=<n>::
  33         Generate diffs with <n> lines of context instead of
  34         the usual three. Implies "-p".
  35
  36 --raw::
  37         Generate the raw format.
  38         {git-diff-core? This is the default.}
  39
  40 --patch-with-raw::
  41         Synonym for "-p --raw".
  42
  43 --stat[=width[,name-width]]::
  44         Generate a diffstat.  You can override the default
  45         output width for 80-column terminal by "--stat=width".
  46         The width of the filename part can be controlled by
  47         giving another width to it separated by a comma.
  48
  49 --numstat::
  50         Similar to \--stat, but shows number of added and
  51         deleted lines in decimal notation and pathname without
  52         abbreviation, to make it more machine friendly.  For
  53         binary files, outputs two `-` instead of saying
  54         `0 0`.
  55
  56 --shortstat::
  57         Output only the last line of the --stat format containing total
  58         number of modified files, as well as number of added and deleted
  59         lines.
  60
  61 --summary::
  62         Output a condensed summary of extended header information
  63         such as creations, renames and mode changes.
  64
  65 --patch-with-stat::
  66         Synonym for "-p --stat".
  67         {git-format-patch? This is the default.}
  68
  69 -z::
  70         NUL-line termination on output.  This affects the --raw
  71         output field terminator.  Also output from commands such
  72         as "git-log" will be delimited with NUL between commits.
  73
  74 --name-only::
  75         Show only names of changed files.
  76
  77 --name-status::
  78         Show only names and status of changed files.
  79
  80 --color::
  81         Show colored diff.
  82
  83 --no-color::
  84         Turn off colored diff, even when the configuration file
  85         gives the default to color output.
  86
  87 --color-words::
  88         Show colored word diff, i.e. color words which have changed.
  89
  90 --no-renames::
  91         Turn off rename detection, even when the configuration
  92         file gives the default to do so.
  93
  94 --check::
  95         Warn if changes introduce trailing whitespace
  96         or an indent that uses a space before a tab.
  97
  98 --full-index::
  99         Instead of the first handful characters, show full
 100         object name of pre- and post-image blob on the "index"
 101         line when generating a patch format output.
 102
 103 --binary::
 104         In addition to --full-index, output "binary diff" that
 105         can be applied with "git apply".
 106
 107 --abbrev[=<n>]::
 108         Instead of showing the full 40-byte hexadecimal object
 109         name in diff-raw format output and diff-tree header
 110         lines, show only handful hexdigits prefix.  This is
 111         independent of --full-index option above, which controls
 112         the diff-patch output format.  Non default number of
 113         digits can be specified with --abbrev=<n>.
 114
 115 -B::
 116         Break complete rewrite changes into pairs of delete and create.
 117
 118 -M::
 119         Detect renames.
 120
 121 -C::
 122         Detect copies as well as renames.  See also `--find-copies-harder`.
 123
 124 --diff-filter=[ACDMRTUXB*]::
 125         Select only files that are Added (`A`), Copied (`C`),
 126         Deleted (`D`), Modified (`M`), Renamed (`R`), have their
 127         type (mode) changed (`T`), are Unmerged (`U`), are
 128         Unknown (`X`), or have had their pairing Broken (`B`).
 129         Any combination of the filter characters may be used.
 130         When `*` (All-or-none) is added to the combination, all
 131         paths are selected if there is any file that matches
 132         other criteria in the comparison; if there is no file
 133         that matches other criteria, nothing is selected.
 134
 135 --find-copies-harder::
 136         For performance reasons, by default, `-C` option finds copies only
 137         if the original file of the copy was modified in the same
 138         changeset.  This flag makes the command
 139         inspect unmodified files as candidates for the source of
 140         copy.  This is a very expensive operation for large
 141         projects, so use it with caution.  Giving more than one
 142         `-C` option has the same effect.
 143
 144 -l<num>::
 145         -M and -C options require O(n^2) processing time where n
 146         is the number of potential rename/copy targets.  This
 147         option prevents rename/copy detection from running if
 148         the number of rename/copy targets exceeds the specified
 149         number.
 150
 151 -S<string>::
 152         Look for differences that contain the change in <string>.
 153
 154 --pickaxe-all::
 155         When -S finds a change, show all the changes in that
 156         changeset, not just the files that contain the change
 157         in <string>.
 158
 159 --pickaxe-regex::
 160         Make the <string> not a plain string but an extended POSIX
 161         regex to match.
 162
 163 -O<orderfile>::
 164         Output the patch in the order specified in the
 165         <orderfile>, which has one shell glob pattern per line.
 166
 167 -R::
 168         Swap two inputs; that is, show differences from index or
 169         on-disk file to tree contents.
 170
 171 --text::
 172         Treat all files as text.
 173
 174 -a::
 175         Shorthand for "--text".
 176
 177 --ignore-space-at-eol::
 178         Ignore changes in white spaces at EOL.
 179
 180 --ignore-space-change::
 181         Ignore changes in amount of white space.  This ignores white
 182         space at line end, and consider all other sequences of one or
 183         more white space characters to be equivalent.
 184
 185 -b::
 186         Shorthand for "--ignore-space-change".
 187
 188 --ignore-all-space::
 189         Ignore white space when comparing lines.  This ignores
 190         difference even if one line has white space where the other
 191         line has none.
 192
 193 -w::
 194         Shorthand for "--ignore-all-space".
 195
 196 --exit-code::
 197         Make the program exit with codes similar to diff(1).
 198         That is, it exits with 1 if there were differences and
 199         0 means no differences.
 200
 201 --quiet::
 202         Disable all output of the program. Implies --exit-code.
 203
 204 --ext-diff::
 205         Allow an external diff helper to be executed. If you set an
 206         external diff driver with gitlink:gitattributes[5], you need
 207         to use this option with gitlink:git-log[1] and friends.
 208
 209 --no-ext-diff::
 210         Disallow external diff drivers.
 211
 212 For more detailed explanation on these common options, see also
 213 link:diffcore.html[diffcore documentation].