See changes to a specific file using git

Question

I know that I can use the git diff command to check the changes  but  as far as I understood  it is directory based  This means it gives all the changes of all files on the current directory   How can I check only the changes in one specific file  Say  I have changed files file 1 rb  file 2 rb       file N rb  but I am only interested in the changes in the file file 2 rb  How do I check these changes then  before I commit

User · Answer

You can execute    git status -s   This will show modified files name and then by copying the interested file path you can see changes using git diff  git diff  lt filepath   filename gt

User · Answer

Use a command like   git diff file 2 rb   See the git diff documentation for full information on the kinds of things you can get differences for   Normally  git diff by itself shows all the changes in the whole repository  not just the current directory

User · Answer

You can use below command to see who have changed what in a file   git blame  lt filename gt

User · Answer

Totally agree with  Greg Hewgill  And if you path includes spaces  you might use  try adding with apostrophe   or    git diff  MyProject My Folder My Sub Folder file 2 rb

User · Answer

Another method  mentioned in this SO answer  will keep the history in the terminal and give you a very deep track record of the file itself  git log --follow -p -- file  This will show the entire history of the file  including history beyond renames and with diffs for each change   In other words  if the file named bar was once named foo  then git log -p bar  without the --follow option  will only show the file s history up to the point where it was renamed -- it won t show the file s history when it was known as foo  Using git log --follow -p bar will show the file s entire history  including any changes to the file when it was known as foo

User · Answer

Or if you prefer to use your own gui tool   git difftool   filepath   You can set your gui tool guided by this post  How do I view   39 git diff  39  output with a visual diff program

User · Answer

you can also try  git show  lt filename gt    For commits  git show will show the log message and textual diff  between your file and the commited version of the file    You can check git show Documentation for more info

User · Answer

to list only commits details for specific file changes   git log --follow file 1 rb   to list difference among various commits for same file   git log -p file 1 rb   to list only commit and its message   git log --follow --oneline file 1 rb

User · Answer

You can use gitk  filename  to see the changes log

[git] See changes to a specific file using git

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