-Generating patches with -p
---------------------------
-
-When "git-diff-index", "git-diff-tree", or "git-diff-files" are run
-with a `-p` option, "git diff" without the `--raw` option, or
-"git log" with the "-p" option, they
-do not produce the output described above; instead they produce a
-patch file. You can customize the creation of such patches via the
+Generating patch text with -p
+-----------------------------
+
+Running
+linkgit:git-diff[1],
+linkgit:git-log[1],
+linkgit:git-show[1],
+linkgit:git-diff-index[1],
+linkgit:git-diff-tree[1], or
+linkgit:git-diff-files[1]
+with the `-p` option produces patch text.
+You can customize the creation of patch text via the
`GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF` and the `GIT_DIFF_OPTS` environment variables.
What the -p option produces is slightly different from the traditional
files, while 100% dissimilarity means that no line from the old
file made it into the new one.
+
-The index line includes the SHA-1 checksum before and after the change.
+The index line includes the blob object names before and after the change.
The <mode> is included if the file mode does not change; otherwise,
separate lines indicate the old and the new mode.
rename to a
-combined diff format
+Combined diff format
--------------------
Any diff-generating command can take the `-c` or `--cc` option to
of these commands to force generation of diffs with individual parents
of a merge.
-A 'combined diff' format looks like this:
+A "combined diff" format looks like this:
------------
diff --combined describe.c
------------
1. It is preceded with a "git diff" header, that looks like
- this (when `-c` option is used):
+ this (when the `-c` option is used):
diff --combined file
+
-or like this (when `--cc` option is used):
+or like this (when the `--cc` option is used):
diff --cc file
4. Chunk header format is modified to prevent people from
accidentally feeding it to `patch -p1`. Combined diff format
was created for review of merge commit changes, and was not
- meant for apply. The change is similar to the change in the
+ meant to be applied. The change is similar to the change in the
extended 'index' header:
@@@ <from-file-range> <from-file-range> <to-file-range> @@@