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         Generate patch (see section on generating patches).
  25         {git-diff? This is the default.}
  26 endif::git-format-patch[]
  27
  28 -U<n>::
  29 --unified=<n>::
  30         Generate diffs with <n> lines of context instead of
  31         the usual three.
  32 ifndef::git-format-patch[]
  33         Implies `-p`.
  34 endif::git-format-patch[]
  35
  36 ifndef::git-format-patch[]
  37 --raw::
  38         Generate the raw format.
  39         {git-diff-core? This is the default.}
  40 endif::git-format-patch[]
  41
  42 ifndef::git-format-patch[]
  43 --patch-with-raw::
  44         Synonym for `-p --raw`.
  45 endif::git-format-patch[]
  46
  47 --patience::
  48         Generate a diff using the "patience diff" algorithm.
  49
  50 --stat[=width[,name-width]]::
  51         Generate a diffstat.  You can override the default
  52         output width for 80-column terminal by `--stat=width`.
  53         The width of the filename part can be controlled by
  54         giving another width to it separated by a comma.
  55
  56 --numstat::
  57         Similar to `\--stat`, but shows number of added and
  58         deleted lines in decimal notation and pathname without
  59         abbreviation, to make it more machine friendly.  For
  60         binary files, outputs two `-` instead of saying
  61         `0 0`.
  62
  63 --shortstat::
  64         Output only the last line of the `--stat` format containing total
  65         number of modified files, as well as number of added and deleted
  66         lines.
  67
  68 --dirstat[=limit]::
  69         Output the distribution of relative amount of changes (number of lines added or
  70         removed) for each sub-directory. Directories with changes below
  71         a cut-off percent (3% by default) are not shown. The cut-off percent
  72         can be set with `--dirstat=limit`. Changes in a child directory is not
  73         counted for the parent directory, unless `--cumulative` is used.
  74
  75 --dirstat-by-file[=limit]::
  76         Same as `--dirstat`, but counts changed files instead of lines.
  77
  78 --summary::
  79         Output a condensed summary of extended header information
  80         such as creations, renames and mode changes.
  81
  82 ifndef::git-format-patch[]
  83 --patch-with-stat::
  84         Synonym for `-p --stat`.
  85 endif::git-format-patch[]
  86
  87 ifndef::git-format-patch[]
  88
  89 -z::
  90 ifdef::git-log[]
  91         Separate the commits with NULs instead of with new newlines.
  92 +
  93 Also, when `--raw` or `--numstat` has been given, do not munge
  94 pathnames and use NULs as output field terminators.
  95 endif::git-log[]
  96 ifndef::git-log[]
  97         When `--raw` or `--numstat` has been given, do not munge
  98         pathnames and use NULs as output field terminators.
  99 endif::git-log[]
 100 +
 101 Without this option, each pathname output will have TAB, LF, double quotes,
 102 and backslash characters replaced with `\t`, `\n`, `\"`, and `\\`,
 103 respectively, and the pathname will be enclosed in double quotes if
 104 any of those replacements occurred.
 105
 106 --name-only::
 107         Show only names of changed files.
 108
 109 --name-status::
 110         Show only names and status of changed files. See the description
 111         of the `--diff-filter` option on what the status letters mean.
 112
 113 --submodule[=<format>]::
 114         Chose the output format for submodule differences. <format> can be one of
 115         'short' and 'log'. 'short' just shows pairs of commit names, this format
 116         is used when this option is not given. 'log' is the default value for this
 117         option and lists the commits in that commit range like the 'summary'
 118         option of linkgit:git-submodule[1] does.
 119
 120 --color::
 121         Show colored diff.
 122
 123 --no-color::
 124         Turn off colored diff, even when the configuration file
 125         gives the default to color output.
 126
 127 --color-words[=<regex>]::
 128         Show colored word diff, i.e., color words which have changed.
 129         By default, words are separated by whitespace.
 130 +
 131 When a <regex> is specified, every non-overlapping match of the
 132 <regex> is considered a word.  Anything between these matches is
 133 considered whitespace and ignored(!) for the purposes of finding
 134 differences.  You may want to append `|[^[:space:]]` to your regular
 135 expression to make sure that it matches all non-whitespace characters.
 136 A match that contains a newline is silently truncated(!) at the
 137 newline.
 138 +
 139 The regex can also be set via a diff driver or configuration option, see
 140 linkgit:gitattributes[1] or linkgit:git-config[1].  Giving it explicitly
 141 overrides any diff driver or configuration setting.  Diff drivers
 142 override configuration settings.
 143 endif::git-format-patch[]
 144
 145 --no-renames::
 146         Turn off rename detection, even when the configuration
 147         file gives the default to do so.
 148
 149 ifndef::git-format-patch[]
 150 --check::
 151         Warn if changes introduce trailing whitespace
 152         or an indent that uses a space before a tab. Exits with
 153         non-zero status if problems are found. Not compatible with
 154         --exit-code.
 155 endif::git-format-patch[]
 156
 157 --full-index::
 158         Instead of the first handful of characters, show the full
 159         pre- and post-image blob object names on the "index"
 160         line when generating patch format output.
 161
 162 --binary::
 163         In addition to `--full-index`, output a binary diff that
 164         can be applied with `git-apply`.
 165
 166 --abbrev[=<n>]::
 167         Instead of showing the full 40-byte hexadecimal object
 168         name in diff-raw format output and diff-tree header
 169         lines, show only a partial prefix.  This is
 170         independent of the `--full-index` option above, which controls
 171         the diff-patch output format.  Non default number of
 172         digits can be specified with `--abbrev=<n>`.
 173
 174 -B::
 175         Break complete rewrite changes into pairs of delete and create.
 176
 177 -M::
 178         Detect renames.
 179
 180 -C::
 181         Detect copies as well as renames.  See also `--find-copies-harder`.
 182
 183 ifndef::git-format-patch[]
 184 --diff-filter=[ACDMRTUXB*]::
 185         Select only files that are Added (`A`), Copied (`C`),
 186         Deleted (`D`), Modified (`M`), Renamed (`R`), have their
 187         type (i.e. regular file, symlink, submodule, ...) changed (`T`),
 188         are Unmerged (`U`), are
 189         Unknown (`X`), or have had their pairing Broken (`B`).
 190         Any combination of the filter characters may be used.
 191         When `*` (All-or-none) is added to the combination, all
 192         paths are selected if there is any file that matches
 193         other criteria in the comparison; if there is no file
 194         that matches other criteria, nothing is selected.
 195 endif::git-format-patch[]
 196
 197 --find-copies-harder::
 198         For performance reasons, by default, `-C` option finds copies only
 199         if the original file of the copy was modified in the same
 200         changeset.  This flag makes the command
 201         inspect unmodified files as candidates for the source of
 202         copy.  This is a very expensive operation for large
 203         projects, so use it with caution.  Giving more than one
 204         `-C` option has the same effect.
 205
 206 -l<num>::
 207         The `-M` and `-C` options require O(n^2) processing time where n
 208         is the number of potential rename/copy targets.  This
 209         option prevents rename/copy detection from running if
 210         the number of rename/copy targets exceeds the specified
 211         number.
 212
 213 ifndef::git-format-patch[]
 214 -S<string>::
 215         Look for differences that introduce or remove an instance of
 216         <string>. Note that this is different than the string simply
 217         appearing in diff output; see the 'pickaxe' entry in
 218         linkgit:gitdiffcore[7] for more details.
 219
 220 --pickaxe-all::
 221         When `-S` finds a change, show all the changes in that
 222         changeset, not just the files that contain the change
 223         in <string>.
 224
 225 --pickaxe-regex::
 226         Make the <string> not a plain string but an extended POSIX
 227         regex to match.
 228 endif::git-format-patch[]
 229
 230 -O<orderfile>::
 231         Output the patch in the order specified in the
 232         <orderfile>, which has one shell glob pattern per line.
 233
 234 ifndef::git-format-patch[]
 235 -R::
 236         Swap two inputs; that is, show differences from index or
 237         on-disk file to tree contents.
 238
 239 --relative[=<path>]::
 240         When run from a subdirectory of the project, it can be
 241         told to exclude changes outside the directory and show
 242         pathnames relative to it with this option.  When you are
 243         not in a subdirectory (e.g. in a bare repository), you
 244         can name which subdirectory to make the output relative
 245         to by giving a <path> as an argument.
 246 endif::git-format-patch[]
 247
 248 -a::
 249 --text::
 250         Treat all files as text.
 251
 252 --ignore-space-at-eol::
 253         Ignore changes in whitespace at EOL.
 254
 255 -b::
 256 --ignore-space-change::
 257         Ignore changes in amount of whitespace.  This ignores whitespace
 258         at line end, and considers all other sequences of one or
 259         more whitespace characters to be equivalent.
 260
 261 -w::
 262 --ignore-all-space::
 263         Ignore whitespace when comparing lines.  This ignores
 264         differences even if one line has whitespace where the other
 265         line has none.
 266
 267 --inter-hunk-context=<lines>::
 268         Show the context between diff hunks, up to the specified number
 269         of lines, thereby fusing hunks that are close to each other.
 270
 271 ifndef::git-format-patch[]
 272 --exit-code::
 273         Make the program exit with codes similar to diff(1).
 274         That is, it exits with 1 if there were differences and
 275         0 means no differences.
 276
 277 --quiet::
 278         Disable all output of the program. Implies `--exit-code`.
 279 endif::git-format-patch[]
 280
 281 --ext-diff::
 282         Allow an external diff helper to be executed. If you set an
 283         external diff driver with linkgit:gitattributes[5], you need
 284         to use this option with linkgit:git-log[1] and friends.
 285
 286 --no-ext-diff::
 287         Disallow external diff drivers.
 288
 289 --ignore-submodules::
 290         Ignore changes to submodules in the diff generation.
 291
 292 --src-prefix=<prefix>::
 293         Show the given source prefix instead of "a/".
 294
 295 --dst-prefix=<prefix>::
 296         Show the given destination prefix instead of "b/".
 297
 298 --no-prefix::
 299         Do not show any source or destination prefix.
 300
 301 For more detailed explanation on these common options, see also
 302 linkgit:gitdiffcore[7].