Documentation/diff-options.txt

   1 -p::
   2         Generate patch (see section on generating patches)
   3
   4 -u::
   5         Synonym for "-p".
   6
   7 -U<n>::
   8         Shorthand for "--unified=<n>".
   9
  10 --unified=<n>::
  11         Generate diffs with <n> lines of context instead of
  12         the usual three. Implies "-p".
  13
  14 --raw::
  15         Generate the raw format.
  16
  17 --patch-with-raw::
  18         Synonym for "-p --raw".
  19
  20 --stat[=width[,name-width]]::
  21         Generate a diffstat.  You can override the default
  22         output width for 80-column terminal by "--stat=width".
  23         The width of the filename part can be controlled by
  24         giving another width to it separated by a comma.
  25
  26 --numstat::
  27         Similar to \--stat, but shows number of added and
  28         deleted lines in decimal notation and pathname without
  29         abbreviation, to make it more machine friendly.  For
  30         binary files, outputs two `-` instead of saying
  31         `0 0`.
  32
  33 --shortstat::
  34         Output only the last line of the --stat format containing total
  35         number of modified files, as well as number of added and deleted
  36         lines.
  37
  38 --summary::
  39         Output a condensed summary of extended header information
  40         such as creations, renames and mode changes.
  41
  42 --patch-with-stat::
  43         Synonym for "-p --stat".
  44
  45 -z::
  46         \0 line termination on output
  47
  48 --name-only::
  49         Show only names of changed files.
  50
  51 --name-status::
  52         Show only names and status of changed files.
  53
  54 --color::
  55         Show colored diff.
  56
  57 --no-color::
  58         Turn off colored diff, even when the configuration file
  59         gives the default to color output.
  60
  61 --color-words::
  62         Show colored word diff, i.e. color words which have changed.
  63
  64 --no-renames::
  65         Turn off rename detection, even when the configuration
  66         file gives the default to do so.
  67
  68 --check::
  69         Warn if changes introduce trailing whitespace
  70         or an indent that uses a space before a tab.
  71
  72 --full-index::
  73         Instead of the first handful characters, show full
  74         object name of pre- and post-image blob on the "index"
  75         line when generating a patch format output.
  76
  77 --binary::
  78         In addition to --full-index, output "binary diff" that
  79         can be applied with "git apply".
  80
  81 --abbrev[=<n>]::
  82         Instead of showing the full 40-byte hexadecimal object
  83         name in diff-raw format output and diff-tree header
  84         lines, show only handful hexdigits prefix.  This is
  85         independent of --full-index option above, which controls
  86         the diff-patch output format.  Non default number of
  87         digits can be specified with --abbrev=<n>.
  88
  89 -B::
  90         Break complete rewrite changes into pairs of delete and create.
  91
  92 -M::
  93         Detect renames.
  94
  95 -C::
  96         Detect copies as well as renames.  See also `--find-copies-harder`.
  97
  98 --diff-filter=[ACDMRTUXB*]::
  99         Select only files that are Added (`A`), Copied (`C`),
 100         Deleted (`D`), Modified (`M`), Renamed (`R`), have their
 101         type (mode) changed (`T`), are Unmerged (`U`), are
 102         Unknown (`X`), or have had their pairing Broken (`B`).
 103         Any combination of the filter characters may be used.
 104         When `*` (All-or-none) is added to the combination, all
 105         paths are selected if there is any file that matches
 106         other criteria in the comparison; if there is no file
 107         that matches other criteria, nothing is selected.
 108
 109 --find-copies-harder::
 110         For performance reasons, by default, `-C` option finds copies only
 111         if the original file of the copy was modified in the same
 112         changeset.  This flag makes the command
 113         inspect unmodified files as candidates for the source of
 114         copy.  This is a very expensive operation for large
 115         projects, so use it with caution.  Giving more than one
 116         `-C` option has the same effect.
 117
 118 -l<num>::
 119         -M and -C options require O(n^2) processing time where n
 120         is the number of potential rename/copy targets.  This
 121         option prevents rename/copy detection from running if
 122         the number of rename/copy targets exceeds the specified
 123         number.
 124
 125 -S<string>::
 126         Look for differences that contain the change in <string>.
 127
 128 --pickaxe-all::
 129         When -S finds a change, show all the changes in that
 130         changeset, not just the files that contain the change
 131         in <string>.
 132
 133 --pickaxe-regex::
 134         Make the <string> not a plain string but an extended POSIX
 135         regex to match.
 136
 137 -O<orderfile>::
 138         Output the patch in the order specified in the
 139         <orderfile>, which has one shell glob pattern per line.
 140
 141 -R::
 142         Swap two inputs; that is, show differences from index or
 143         on-disk file to tree contents.
 144
 145 --text::
 146         Treat all files as text.
 147
 148 -a::
 149         Shorthand for "--text".
 150
 151 --ignore-space-at-eol::
 152         Ignore changes in white spaces at EOL.
 153
 154 --ignore-space-change::
 155         Ignore changes in amount of white space.  This ignores white
 156         space at line end, and consider all other sequences of one or
 157         more white space characters to be equivalent.
 158
 159 -b::
 160         Shorthand for "--ignore-space-change".
 161
 162 --ignore-all-space::
 163         Ignore white space when comparing lines.  This ignores
 164         difference even if one line has white space where the other
 165         line has none.
 166
 167 -w::
 168         Shorthand for "--ignore-all-space".
 169
 170 --exit-code::
 171         Make the program exit with codes similar to diff(1).
 172         That is, it exits with 1 if there were differences and
 173         0 means no differences.
 174
 175 --quiet::
 176         Disable all output of the program. Implies --exit-code.
 177
 178 --ext-diff::
 179         Allow an external diff helper to be executed. If you set an
 180         external diff driver with gitlink:gitattributes(5), you need
 181         to use this option with gitlink:git-log(1) and friends.
 182
 183 --no-ext-diff::
 184         Disallow external diff drivers.
 185
 186 For more detailed explanation on these common options, see also
 187 link:diffcore.html[diffcore documentation].