Documentation / diff-options.txton commit Refactor --dirstat parsing; deprecate --cumulative and --dirstat-by-file (333f3fb)
   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
   7ifndef::git-format-patch[]
   8ifndef::git-diff[]
   9ifndef::git-log[]
  10:git-diff-core: 1
  11endif::git-log[]
  12endif::git-diff[]
  13endif::git-format-patch[]
  14
  15ifdef::git-format-patch[]
  16-p::
  17--no-stat::
  18        Generate plain patches without any diffstats.
  19endif::git-format-patch[]
  20
  21ifndef::git-format-patch[]
  22-p::
  23-u::
  24--patch::
  25        Generate patch (see section on generating patches).
  26        {git-diff? This is the default.}
  27endif::git-format-patch[]
  28
  29-U<n>::
  30--unified=<n>::
  31        Generate diffs with <n> lines of context instead of
  32        the usual three.
  33ifndef::git-format-patch[]
  34        Implies `-p`.
  35endif::git-format-patch[]
  36
  37ifndef::git-format-patch[]
  38--raw::
  39        Generate the raw format.
  40        {git-diff-core? This is the default.}
  41endif::git-format-patch[]
  42
  43ifndef::git-format-patch[]
  44--patch-with-raw::
  45        Synonym for `-p --raw`.
  46endif::git-format-patch[]
  47
  48--patience::
  49        Generate a diff using the "patience diff" algorithm.
  50
  51--stat[=<width>[,<name-width>]]::
  52        Generate a diffstat.  You can override the default
  53        output width for 80-column terminal by `--stat=<width>`.
  54        The width of the filename part can be controlled by
  55        giving another width to it separated by a comma.
  56
  57--numstat::
  58        Similar to `\--stat`, but shows number of added and
  59        deleted lines in decimal notation and pathname without
  60        abbreviation, to make it more machine friendly.  For
  61        binary files, outputs two `-` instead of saying
  62        `0 0`.
  63
  64--shortstat::
  65        Output only the last line of the `--stat` format containing total
  66        number of modified files, as well as number of added and deleted
  67        lines.
  68
  69--dirstat[=<param1,param2,...>]::
  70        Output the distribution of relative amount of changes for each
  71        sub-directory. The behavior of `--dirstat` can be customized by
  72        passing it a comma separated list of parameters.
  73        The following parameters are available:
  74+
  75--
  76`changes`;;
  77        Compute the dirstat numbers by counting the lines that have been
  78        removed from the source, or added to the destination. This ignores
  79        the amount of pure code movements within a file.  In other words,
  80        rearranging lines in a file is not counted as much as other changes.
  81        This is the default behavior when no parameter is given.
  82`files`;;
  83        Compute the dirstat numbers by counting the number of files changed.
  84        Each changed file counts equally in the dirstat analysis. This is
  85        the computationally cheapest `--dirstat` behavior, since it does
  86        not have to look at the file contents at all.
  87`cumulative`;;
  88        Count changes in a child directory for the parent directory as well.
  89        Note that when using `cumulative`, the sum of the percentages
  90        reported may exceed 100%. The default (non-cumulative) behavior can
  91        be specified with the `noncumulative` parameter.
  92<limit>;;
  93        An integer parameter specifies a cut-off percent (3% by default).
  94        Directories contributing less than this percentage of the changes
  95        are not shown in the output.
  96--
  97+
  98Example: The following will count changed files, while ignoring
  99directories with less than 10% of the total amount of changed files,
 100and accumulating child directory counts in the parent directories:
 101`--dirstat=files,10,cumulative`.
 102
 103--summary::
 104        Output a condensed summary of extended header information
 105        such as creations, renames and mode changes.
 106
 107ifndef::git-format-patch[]
 108--patch-with-stat::
 109        Synonym for `-p --stat`.
 110endif::git-format-patch[]
 111
 112ifndef::git-format-patch[]
 113
 114-z::
 115ifdef::git-log[]
 116        Separate the commits with NULs instead of with new newlines.
 117+
 118Also, when `--raw` or `--numstat` has been given, do not munge
 119pathnames and use NULs as output field terminators.
 120endif::git-log[]
 121ifndef::git-log[]
 122        When `--raw`, `--numstat`, `--name-only` or `--name-status` has been
 123        given, do not munge pathnames and use NULs as output field terminators.
 124endif::git-log[]
 125+
 126Without this option, each pathname output will have TAB, LF, double quotes,
 127and backslash characters replaced with `\t`, `\n`, `\"`, and `\\`,
 128respectively, and the pathname will be enclosed in double quotes if
 129any of those replacements occurred.
 130
 131--name-only::
 132        Show only names of changed files.
 133
 134--name-status::
 135        Show only names and status of changed files. See the description
 136        of the `--diff-filter` option on what the status letters mean.
 137
 138--submodule[=<format>]::
 139        Chose the output format for submodule differences. <format> can be one of
 140        'short' and 'log'. 'short' just shows pairs of commit names, this format
 141        is used when this option is not given. 'log' is the default value for this
 142        option and lists the commits in that commit range like the 'summary'
 143        option of linkgit:git-submodule[1] does.
 144
 145--color[=<when>]::
 146        Show colored diff.
 147        The value must be always (the default), never, or auto.
 148
 149--no-color::
 150        Turn off colored diff, even when the configuration file
 151        gives the default to color output.
 152        Same as `--color=never`.
 153
 154--word-diff[=<mode>]::
 155        Show a word diff, using the <mode> to delimit changed words.
 156        By default, words are delimited by whitespace; see
 157        `--word-diff-regex` below.  The <mode> defaults to 'plain', and
 158        must be one of:
 159+
 160--
 161color::
 162        Highlight changed words using only colors.  Implies `--color`.
 163plain::
 164        Show words as `[-removed-]` and `{+added+}`.  Makes no
 165        attempts to escape the delimiters if they appear in the input,
 166        so the output may be ambiguous.
 167porcelain::
 168        Use a special line-based format intended for script
 169        consumption.  Added/removed/unchanged runs are printed in the
 170        usual unified diff format, starting with a `+`/`-`/` `
 171        character at the beginning of the line and extending to the
 172        end of the line.  Newlines in the input are represented by a
 173        tilde `~` on a line of its own.
 174none::
 175        Disable word diff again.
 176--
 177+
 178Note that despite the name of the first mode, color is used to
 179highlight the changed parts in all modes if enabled.
 180
 181--word-diff-regex=<regex>::
 182        Use <regex> to decide what a word is, instead of considering
 183        runs of non-whitespace to be a word.  Also implies
 184        `--word-diff` unless it was already enabled.
 185+
 186Every non-overlapping match of the
 187<regex> is considered a word.  Anything between these matches is
 188considered whitespace and ignored(!) for the purposes of finding
 189differences.  You may want to append `|[^[:space:]]` to your regular
 190expression to make sure that it matches all non-whitespace characters.
 191A match that contains a newline is silently truncated(!) at the
 192newline.
 193+
 194The regex can also be set via a diff driver or configuration option, see
 195linkgit:gitattributes[1] or linkgit:git-config[1].  Giving it explicitly
 196overrides any diff driver or configuration setting.  Diff drivers
 197override configuration settings.
 198
 199--color-words[=<regex>]::
 200        Equivalent to `--word-diff=color` plus (if a regex was
 201        specified) `--word-diff-regex=<regex>`.
 202endif::git-format-patch[]
 203
 204--no-renames::
 205        Turn off rename detection, even when the configuration
 206        file gives the default to do so.
 207
 208ifndef::git-format-patch[]
 209--check::
 210        Warn if changes introduce trailing whitespace
 211        or an indent that uses a space before a tab. Exits with
 212        non-zero status if problems are found. Not compatible with
 213        --exit-code.
 214endif::git-format-patch[]
 215
 216--full-index::
 217        Instead of the first handful of characters, show the full
 218        pre- and post-image blob object names on the "index"
 219        line when generating patch format output.
 220
 221--binary::
 222        In addition to `--full-index`, output a binary diff that
 223        can be applied with `git-apply`.
 224
 225--abbrev[=<n>]::
 226        Instead of showing the full 40-byte hexadecimal object
 227        name in diff-raw format output and diff-tree header
 228        lines, show only a partial prefix.  This is
 229        independent of the `--full-index` option above, which controls
 230        the diff-patch output format.  Non default number of
 231        digits can be specified with `--abbrev=<n>`.
 232
 233-B[<n>][/<m>]::
 234--break-rewrites[=[<n>][/<m>]]::
 235        Break complete rewrite changes into pairs of delete and
 236        create. This serves two purposes:
 237+
 238It affects the way a change that amounts to a total rewrite of a file
 239not as a series of deletion and insertion mixed together with a very
 240few lines that happen to match textually as the context, but as a
 241single deletion of everything old followed by a single insertion of
 242everything new, and the number `m` controls this aspect of the -B
 243option (defaults to 60%). `-B/70%` specifies that less than 30% of the
 244original should remain in the result for git to consider it a total
 245rewrite (i.e. otherwise the resulting patch will be a series of
 246deletion and insertion mixed together with context lines).
 247+
 248When used with -M, a totally-rewritten file is also considered as the
 249source of a rename (usually -M only considers a file that disappeared
 250as the source of a rename), and the number `n` controls this aspect of
 251the -B option (defaults to 50%). `-B20%` specifies that a change with
 252addition and deletion compared to 20% or more of the file's size are
 253eligible for being picked up as a possible source of a rename to
 254another file.
 255
 256-M[<n>]::
 257--find-renames[=<n>]::
 258ifndef::git-log[]
 259        Detect renames.
 260endif::git-log[]
 261ifdef::git-log[]
 262        If generating diffs, detect and report renames for each commit.
 263        For following files across renames while traversing history, see
 264        `--follow`.
 265endif::git-log[]
 266        If `n` is specified, it is a is a threshold on the similarity
 267        index (i.e. amount of addition/deletions compared to the
 268        file's size). For example, `-M90%` means git should consider a
 269        delete/add pair to be a rename if more than 90% of the file
 270        hasn't changed.
 271
 272-C[<n>]::
 273--find-copies[=<n>]::
 274        Detect copies as well as renames.  See also `--find-copies-harder`.
 275        If `n` is specified, it has the same meaning as for `-M<n>`.
 276
 277--find-copies-harder::
 278        For performance reasons, by default, `-C` option finds copies only
 279        if the original file of the copy was modified in the same
 280        changeset.  This flag makes the command
 281        inspect unmodified files as candidates for the source of
 282        copy.  This is a very expensive operation for large
 283        projects, so use it with caution.  Giving more than one
 284        `-C` option has the same effect.
 285
 286-D::
 287--irreversible-delete::
 288        Omit the preimage for deletes, i.e. print only the header but not
 289        the diff between the preimage and `/dev/null`. The resulting patch
 290        is not meant to be applied with `patch` nor `git apply`; this is
 291        solely for people who want to just concentrate on reviewing the
 292        text after the change. In addition, the output obviously lack
 293        enough information to apply such a patch in reverse, even manually,
 294        hence the name of the option.
 295+
 296When used together with `-B`, omit also the preimage in the deletion part
 297of a delete/create pair.
 298
 299-l<num>::
 300        The `-M` and `-C` options require O(n^2) processing time where n
 301        is the number of potential rename/copy targets.  This
 302        option prevents rename/copy detection from running if
 303        the number of rename/copy targets exceeds the specified
 304        number.
 305
 306ifndef::git-format-patch[]
 307--diff-filter=[(A|C|D|M|R|T|U|X|B)...[*]]::
 308        Select only files that are Added (`A`), Copied (`C`),
 309        Deleted (`D`), Modified (`M`), Renamed (`R`), have their
 310        type (i.e. regular file, symlink, submodule, ...) changed (`T`),
 311        are Unmerged (`U`), are
 312        Unknown (`X`), or have had their pairing Broken (`B`).
 313        Any combination of the filter characters (including none) can be used.
 314        When `*` (All-or-none) is added to the combination, all
 315        paths are selected if there is any file that matches
 316        other criteria in the comparison; if there is no file
 317        that matches other criteria, nothing is selected.
 318
 319-S<string>::
 320        Look for differences that introduce or remove an instance of
 321        <string>. Note that this is different than the string simply
 322        appearing in diff output; see the 'pickaxe' entry in
 323        linkgit:gitdiffcore[7] for more details.
 324
 325-G<regex>::
 326        Look for differences whose added or removed line matches
 327        the given <regex>.
 328
 329--pickaxe-all::
 330        When `-S` or `-G` finds a change, show all the changes in that
 331        changeset, not just the files that contain the change
 332        in <string>.
 333
 334--pickaxe-regex::
 335        Make the <string> not a plain string but an extended POSIX
 336        regex to match.
 337endif::git-format-patch[]
 338
 339-O<orderfile>::
 340        Output the patch in the order specified in the
 341        <orderfile>, which has one shell glob pattern per line.
 342
 343ifndef::git-format-patch[]
 344-R::
 345        Swap two inputs; that is, show differences from index or
 346        on-disk file to tree contents.
 347
 348--relative[=<path>]::
 349        When run from a subdirectory of the project, it can be
 350        told to exclude changes outside the directory and show
 351        pathnames relative to it with this option.  When you are
 352        not in a subdirectory (e.g. in a bare repository), you
 353        can name which subdirectory to make the output relative
 354        to by giving a <path> as an argument.
 355endif::git-format-patch[]
 356
 357-a::
 358--text::
 359        Treat all files as text.
 360
 361--ignore-space-at-eol::
 362        Ignore changes in whitespace at EOL.
 363
 364-b::
 365--ignore-space-change::
 366        Ignore changes in amount of whitespace.  This ignores whitespace
 367        at line end, and considers all other sequences of one or
 368        more whitespace characters to be equivalent.
 369
 370-w::
 371--ignore-all-space::
 372        Ignore whitespace when comparing lines.  This ignores
 373        differences even if one line has whitespace where the other
 374        line has none.
 375
 376--inter-hunk-context=<lines>::
 377        Show the context between diff hunks, up to the specified number
 378        of lines, thereby fusing hunks that are close to each other.
 379
 380ifndef::git-format-patch[]
 381--exit-code::
 382        Make the program exit with codes similar to diff(1).
 383        That is, it exits with 1 if there were differences and
 384        0 means no differences.
 385
 386--quiet::
 387        Disable all output of the program. Implies `--exit-code`.
 388endif::git-format-patch[]
 389
 390--ext-diff::
 391        Allow an external diff helper to be executed. If you set an
 392        external diff driver with linkgit:gitattributes[5], you need
 393        to use this option with linkgit:git-log[1] and friends.
 394
 395--no-ext-diff::
 396        Disallow external diff drivers.
 397
 398--ignore-submodules[=<when>]::
 399        Ignore changes to submodules in the diff generation. <when> can be
 400        either "none", "untracked", "dirty" or "all", which is the default
 401        Using "none" will consider the submodule modified when it either contains
 402        untracked or modified files or its HEAD differs from the commit recorded
 403        in the superproject and can be used to override any settings of the
 404        'ignore' option in linkgit:git-config[1] or linkgit:gitmodules[5]. When
 405        "untracked" is used submodules are not considered dirty when they only
 406        contain untracked content (but they are still scanned for modified
 407        content). Using "dirty" ignores all changes to the work tree of submodules,
 408        only changes to the commits stored in the superproject are shown (this was
 409        the behavior until 1.7.0). Using "all" hides all changes to submodules.
 410
 411--src-prefix=<prefix>::
 412        Show the given source prefix instead of "a/".
 413
 414--dst-prefix=<prefix>::
 415        Show the given destination prefix instead of "b/".
 416
 417--no-prefix::
 418        Do not show any source or destination prefix.
 419
 420For more detailed explanation on these common options, see also
 421linkgit:gitdiffcore[7].