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GIT-DIFF-FILES(1)		  Git Manual		     GIT-DIFF-FILES(1)

NAME
       git-diff-files - Compares files in the working tree and the index

SYNOPSIS
       git diff-files [-q] [-0|-1|-2|-3|-c|--cc] [<common diff options>]
       [<path>...]

DESCRIPTION
       Compares the files in the working tree and the index. When paths are
       specified, compares only those named paths. Otherwise all entries in
       the index are compared. The output format is the same as for git
       diff-index and git diff-tree.

OPTIONS
       -p, -u
	   Generate patch (see section on generating patches).

       -U<n>, --unified=<n>
	   Generate diffs with <n> lines of context instead of the usual
	   three. Implies -p.

       --raw
	   Generate the raw format. This is the default.

       --patch-with-raw
	   Synonym for -p --raw.

       --patience
	   Generate a diff using the "patience diff" algorithm.

       --stat[=width[,name-width]]
	   Generate a diffstat. You can override the default output width for
	   80-column terminal by --stat=width. The width of the filename part
	   can be controlled by giving another width to it separated by a
	   comma.

       --numstat
	   Similar to \--stat, but shows number of added and deleted lines in
	   decimal notation and pathname without abbreviation, to make it more
	   machine friendly. For binary files, outputs two - instead of saying
	   0 0.

       --shortstat
	   Output only the last line of the --stat format containing total
	   number of modified files, as well as number of added and deleted
	   lines.

       --dirstat[=limit]
	   Output the distribution of relative amount of changes (number of
	   lines added or removed) for each sub-directory. Directories with
	   changes below a cut-off percent (3% by default) are not shown. The
	   cut-off percent can be set with --dirstat=limit. Changes in a child
	   directory is not counted for the parent directory, unless
	   --cumulative is used.

       --dirstat-by-file[=limit]
	   Same as --dirstat, but counts changed files instead of lines.

       --summary
	   Output a condensed summary of extended header information such as
	   creations, renames and mode changes.

       --patch-with-stat
	   Synonym for -p --stat.

       -z
	   When --raw, --numstat, --name-only or --name-status has been given,
	   do not munge pathnames and use NULs as output field terminators.

	   Without this option, each pathname output will have TAB, LF, double
	   quotes, and backslash characters replaced with \t, \n, \", and \\,
	   respectively, and the pathname will be enclosed in double quotes if
	   any of those replacements occurred.

       --name-only
	   Show only names of changed files.

       --name-status
	   Show only names and status of changed files. See the description of
	   the --diff-filter option on what the status letters mean.

       --submodule[=<format>]
	   Chose the output format for submodule differences. <format> can be
	   one of short and log.  short just shows pairs of commit names, this
	   format is used when this option is not given.  log is the default
	   value for this option and lists the commits in that commit range
	   like the summary option of git-submodule(1) does.

       --color[=<when>]
	   Show colored diff. The value must be always (the default), never,
	   or auto.

       --no-color
	   Turn off colored diff, even when the configuration file gives the
	   default to color output. Same as --color=never.

       --color-words[=<regex>]
	   Show colored word diff, i.e., color words which have changed. By
	   default, words are separated by whitespace.

	   When a <regex> is specified, every non-overlapping match of the
	   <regex> is considered a word. Anything between these matches is
	   considered whitespace and ignored(!) for the purposes of finding
	   differences. You may want to append |[^[:space:]] to your regular
	   expression to make sure that it matches all non-whitespace
	   characters. A match that contains a newline is silently
	   truncated(!) at the newline.

	   The regex can also be set via a diff driver or configuration
	   option, see gitattributes(1) or git-config(1). Giving it explicitly
	   overrides any diff driver or configuration setting. Diff drivers
	   override configuration settings.

       --no-renames
	   Turn off rename detection, even when the configuration file gives
	   the default to do so.

       --check
	   Warn if changes introduce trailing whitespace or an indent that
	   uses a space before a tab. Exits with non-zero status if problems
	   are found. Not compatible with --exit-code.

       --full-index
	   Instead of the first handful of characters, show the full pre- and
	   post-image blob object names on the "index" line when generating
	   patch format output.

       --binary
	   In addition to --full-index, output a binary diff that can be
	   applied with git-apply.

       --abbrev[=<n>]
	   Instead of showing the full 40-byte hexadecimal object name in
	   diff-raw format output and diff-tree header lines, show only a
	   partial prefix. This is independent of the --full-index option
	   above, which controls the diff-patch output format. Non default
	   number of digits can be specified with --abbrev=<n>.

       -B
	   Break complete rewrite changes into pairs of delete and create.

       -M
	   Detect renames.

       -C
	   Detect copies as well as renames. See also --find-copies-harder.

       --diff-filter=[ACDMRTUXB*]
	   Select only files that are Added (A), Copied (C), Deleted (D),
	   Modified (M), Renamed (R), have their type (i.e. regular file,
	   symlink, submodule, ...) changed (T), are Unmerged (U), are Unknown
	   (X), or have had their pairing Broken (B). Any combination of the
	   filter characters may be used. When * (All-or-none) is added to the
	   combination, all paths are selected if there is any file that
	   matches other criteria in the comparison; if there is no file that
	   matches other criteria, nothing is selected.

       --find-copies-harder
	   For performance reasons, by default, -C option finds copies only if
	   the original file of the copy was modified in the same changeset.
	   This flag makes the command inspect unmodified files as candidates
	   for the source of copy. This is a very expensive operation for
	   large projects, so use it with caution. Giving more than one -C
	   option has the same effect.

       -l<num>
	   The -M and -C options require O(n^2) processing time where n is the
	   number of potential rename/copy targets. This option prevents
	   rename/copy detection from running if the number of rename/copy
	   targets exceeds the specified number.

       -S<string>
	   Look for differences that introduce or remove an instance of
	   <string>. Note that this is different than the string simply
	   appearing in diff output; see the pickaxe entry in gitdiffcore(7)
	   for more details.

       --pickaxe-all
	   When -S finds a change, show all the changes in that changeset, not
	   just the files that contain the change in <string>.

       --pickaxe-regex
	   Make the <string> not a plain string but an extended POSIX regex to
	   match.

       -O<orderfile>
	   Output the patch in the order specified in the <orderfile>, which
	   has one shell glob pattern per line.

       -R
	   Swap two inputs; that is, show differences from index or on-disk
	   file to tree contents.

       --relative[=<path>]
	   When run from a subdirectory of the project, it can be told to
	   exclude changes outside the directory and show pathnames relative
	   to it with this option. When you are not in a subdirectory (e.g. in
	   a bare repository), you can name which subdirectory to make the
	   output relative to by giving a <path> as an argument.

       -a, --text
	   Treat all files as text.

       --ignore-space-at-eol
	   Ignore changes in whitespace at EOL.

       -b, --ignore-space-change
	   Ignore changes in amount of whitespace. This ignores whitespace at
	   line end, and considers all other sequences of one or more
	   whitespace characters to be equivalent.

       -w, --ignore-all-space
	   Ignore whitespace when comparing lines. This ignores differences
	   even if one line has whitespace where the other line has none.

       --inter-hunk-context=<lines>
	   Show the context between diff hunks, up to the specified number of
	   lines, thereby fusing hunks that are close to each other.

       --exit-code
	   Make the program exit with codes similar to diff(1). That is, it
	   exits with 1 if there were differences and 0 means no differences.

       --quiet
	   Disable all output of the program. Implies --exit-code.

       --ext-diff
	   Allow an external diff helper to be executed. If you set an
	   external diff driver with gitattributes(5), you need to use this
	   option with git-log(1) and friends.

       --no-ext-diff
	   Disallow external diff drivers.

       --ignore-submodules
	   Ignore changes to submodules in the diff generation.

       --src-prefix=<prefix>
	   Show the given source prefix instead of "a/".

       --dst-prefix=<prefix>
	   Show the given destination prefix instead of "b/".

       --no-prefix
	   Do not show any source or destination prefix.

       For more detailed explanation on these common options, see also
       gitdiffcore(7).

       -1 --base, -2 --ours, -3 --theirs, -0
	   Diff against the "base" version, "our branch" or "their branch"
	   respectively. With these options, diffs for merged entries are not
	   shown.

	   The default is to diff against our branch (-2) and the cleanly
	   resolved paths. The option -0 can be given to omit diff output for
	   unmerged entries and just show "Unmerged".

       -c, --cc
	   This compares stage 2 (our branch), stage 3 (their branch) and the
	   working tree file and outputs a combined diff, similar to the way
	   diff-tree shows a merge commit with these flags.

       -q
	   Remain silent even on nonexistent files

RAW OUTPUT FORMAT
       The raw output format from "git-diff-index", "git-diff-tree",
       "git-diff-files" and "git diff --raw" are very similar.

       These commands all compare two sets of things; what is compared
       differs:

       git-diff-index <tree-ish>
	   compares the <tree-ish> and the files on the filesystem.

       git-diff-index --cached <tree-ish>
	   compares the <tree-ish> and the index.

       git-diff-tree [-r] <tree-ish-1> <tree-ish-2> [<pattern>...]
	   compares the trees named by the two arguments.

       git-diff-files [<pattern>...]
	   compares the index and the files on the filesystem.

       The "git-diff-tree" command begins its output by printing the hash of
       what is being compared. After that, all the commands print one output
       line per changed file.

       An output line is formatted this way:

	   in-place edit  :100644 100644 bcd1234... 0123456... M file0
	   copy-edit	  :100644 100644 abcd123... 1234567... C68 file1 file2
	   rename-edit	  :100644 100644 abcd123... 1234567... R86 file1 file3
	   create	  :000000 100644 0000000... 1234567... A file4
	   delete	  :100644 000000 1234567... 0000000... D file5
	   unmerged	  :000000 000000 0000000... 0000000... U file6

       That is, from the left to the right:

	1. a colon.

	2. mode for "src"; 000000 if creation or unmerged.

	3. a space.

	4. mode for "dst"; 000000 if deletion or unmerged.

	5. a space.

	6. sha1 for "src"; 0{40} if creation or unmerged.

	7. a space.

	8. sha1 for "dst"; 0{40} if creation, unmerged or "look at work tree".

	9. a space.

       10. status, followed by optional "score" number.

       11. a tab or a NUL when -z option is used.

       12. path for "src"

       13. a tab or a NUL when -z option is used; only exists for C or R.

       14. path for "dst"; only exists for C or R.

       15. an LF or a NUL when -z option is used, to terminate the record.

       Possible status letters are:

       ·   A: addition of a file

       ·   C: copy of a file into a new one

       ·   D: deletion of a file

       ·   M: modification of the contents or mode of a file

       ·   R: renaming of a file

       ·   T: change in the type of the file

       ·   U: file is unmerged (you must complete the merge before it can be
	   committed)

       ·   X: "unknown" change type (most probably a bug, please report it)

       Status letters C and R are always followed by a score (denoting the
       percentage of similarity between the source and target of the move or
       copy), and are the only ones to be so.

       <sha1> is shown as all 0’s if a file is new on the filesystem and it is
       out of sync with the index.

       Example:

	   :100644 100644 5be4a4...... 000000...... M file.c

       When -z option is not used, TAB, LF, and backslash characters in
       pathnames are represented as \t, \n, and \\, respectively.

DIFF FORMAT FOR MERGES
       "git-diff-tree", "git-diff-files" and "git-diff --raw" can take -c or
       --cc option to generate diff output also for merge commits. The output
       differs from the format described above in the following way:

	1. there is a colon for each parent

	2. there are more "src" modes and "src" sha1

	3. status is concatenated status characters for each parent

	4. no optional "score" number

	5. single path, only for "dst"

       Example:

	   ::100644 100644 100644 fabadb8... cc95eb0... 4866510... MM	   describe.c

       Note that combined diff lists only files which were modified from all
       parents.

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 GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF and the GIT_DIFF_OPTS
       environment variables.

       What the -p option produces is slightly different from the traditional
       diff format.

	1. It is preceded with a "git diff" header, that looks like this:

	       diff --git a/file1 b/file2

	   The a/ and b/ filenames are the same unless rename/copy is
	   involved. Especially, even for a creation or a deletion, /dev/null
	   is not used in place of a/ or b/ filenames.

	   When rename/copy is involved, file1 and file2 show the name of the
	   source file of the rename/copy and the name of the file that
	   rename/copy produces, respectively.

	2. It is followed by one or more extended header lines:

	       old mode <mode>
	       new mode <mode>
	       deleted file mode <mode>
	       new file mode <mode>
	       copy from <path>
	       copy to <path>
	       rename from <path>
	       rename to <path>
	       similarity index <number>
	       dissimilarity index <number>
	       index <hash>..<hash> <mode>

	3. TAB, LF, double quote and backslash characters in pathnames are
	   represented as \t, \n, \" and \\, respectively. If there is need
	   for such substitution then the whole pathname is put in double
	   quotes.

       The similarity index is the percentage of unchanged lines, and the
       dissimilarity index is the percentage of changed lines. It is a rounded
       down integer, followed by a percent sign. The similarity index value of
       100% is thus reserved for two equal files, while 100% dissimilarity
       means that no line from the old file made it into the new one.

COMBINED DIFF FORMAT
       "git-diff-tree", "git-diff-files" and "git-diff" can take -c or --cc
       option to produce combined diff. For showing a merge commit with "git
       log -p", this is the default format; you can force showing full diff
       with the -m option. A combined diff format looks like this:

	   diff --combined describe.c
	   index fabadb8,cc95eb0..4866510
	   --- a/describe.c
	   +++ b/describe.c
	   @@@ -98,20 -98,12 +98,20 @@@
		   return (a_date > b_date) ? -1 : (a_date == b_date) ? 0 : 1;
	     }

	   - static void describe(char *arg)
	    -static void describe(struct commit *cmit, int last_one)
	   ++static void describe(char *arg, int last_one)
	     {
	    +	   unsigned char sha1[20];
	    +	   struct commit *cmit;
		   struct commit_list *list;
		   static int initialized = 0;
		   struct commit_name *n;

	    +	   if (get_sha1(arg, sha1) < 0)
	    +		   usage(describe_usage);
	    +	   cmit = lookup_commit_reference(sha1);
	    +	   if (!cmit)
	    +		   usage(describe_usage);
	    +
		   if (!initialized) {
			   initialized = 1;
			   for_each_ref(get_name);

	1. It is preceded with a "git diff" header, that looks like this (when
	   -c option is used):

	       diff --combined file

	   or like this (when --cc option is used):

	       diff --cc file

	2. It is followed by one or more extended header lines (this example
	   shows a merge with two parents):

	       index <hash>,<hash>..<hash>
	       mode <mode>,<mode>..<mode>
	       new file mode <mode>
	       deleted file mode <mode>,<mode>

	   The mode <mode>,<mode>..<mode> line appears only if at least one of
	   the <mode> is different from the rest. Extended headers with
	   information about detected contents movement (renames and copying
	   detection) are designed to work with diff of two <tree-ish> and are
	   not used by combined diff format.

	3. It is followed by two-line from-file/to-file header

	       --- a/file
	       +++ b/file

	   Similar to two-line header for traditional unified diff format,
	   /dev/null is used to signal created or deleted files.

	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 extended index header:

	       @@@ <from-file-range> <from-file-range> <to-file-range> @@@

	   There are (number of parents + 1) @ characters in the chunk header
	   for combined diff format.

       Unlike the traditional unified diff format, which shows two files A and
       B with a single column that has - (minus — appears in A but removed in
       B), + (plus — missing in A but added to B), or " " (space — unchanged)
       prefix, this format compares two or more files file1, file2,... with
       one file X, and shows how X differs from each of fileN. One column for
       each of fileN is prepended to the output line to note how X’s line is
       different from it.

       A - character in the column N means that the line appears in fileN but
       it does not appear in the result. A + character in the column N means
       that the line appears in the result, and fileN does not have that line
       (in other words, the line was added, from the point of view of that
       parent).

       In the above example output, the function signature was changed from
       both files (hence two - removals from both file1 and file2, plus ++ to
       mean one line that was added does not appear in either file1 nor
       file2). Also eight other lines are the same from file1 but do not
       appear in file2 (hence prefixed with {plus}).

       When shown by git diff-tree -c, it compares the parents of a merge
       commit with the merge result (i.e. file1..fileN are the parents). When
       shown by git diff-files -c, it compares the two unresolved merge
       parents with the working tree file (i.e. file1 is stage 2 aka "our
       version", file2 is stage 3 aka "their version").

OTHER DIFF FORMATS
       The --summary option describes newly added, deleted, renamed and copied
       files. The --stat option adds diffstat(1) graph to the output. These
       options can be combined with other options, such as -p, and are meant
       for human consumption.

       When showing a change that involves a rename or a copy, --stat output
       formats the pathnames compactly by combining common prefix and suffix
       of the pathnames. For example, a change that moves arch/i386/Makefile
       to arch/x86/Makefile while modifying 4 lines will be shown like this:

	   arch/{i386 => x86}/Makefile	  |   4 +--

       The --numstat option gives the diffstat(1) information but is designed
       for easier machine consumption. An entry in --numstat output looks like
       this:

	   1	   2	   README
	   3	   1	   arch/{i386 => x86}/Makefile

       That is, from left to right:

	1. the number of added lines;

	2. a tab;

	3. the number of deleted lines;

	4. a tab;

	5. pathname (possibly with rename/copy information);

	6. a newline.

       When -z output option is in effect, the output is formatted this way:

	   1	   2	   README NUL
	   3	   1	   NUL arch/i386/Makefile NUL arch/x86/Makefile NUL

       That is:

	1. the number of added lines;

	2. a tab;

	3. the number of deleted lines;

	4. a tab;

	5. a NUL (only exists if renamed/copied);

	6. pathname in preimage;

	7. a NUL (only exists if renamed/copied);

	8. pathname in postimage (only exists if renamed/copied);

	9. a NUL.

       The extra NUL before the preimage path in renamed case is to allow
       scripts that read the output to tell if the current record being read
       is a single-path record or a rename/copy record without reading ahead.
       After reading added and deleted lines, reading up to NUL would yield
       the pathname, but if that is NUL, the record will show two paths.

AUTHOR
       Written by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org[1]>

DOCUMENTATION
       Documentation by David Greaves, Junio C Hamano and the git-list
       <git@vger.kernel.org[2]>.

GIT
       Part of the git(1) suite

NOTES
	1. torvalds@osdl.org
	   mailto:torvalds@osdl.org

	2. git@vger.kernel.org
	   mailto:git@vger.kernel.org

Git 1.7.1			  12/16/2010		     GIT-DIFF-FILES(1)
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