Show diff between commits

Question

I am using Git on Ubuntu nbsp 10 04  Lucid Lynx    I have made some commits to my master   However  I want to get the difference between these commits  All of them are on my master branch   For example   commit dj374 made changes  commit y4746 made changes  commit k73ud made changes   I want to get the difference between k73ud and dj374  However  when I did the following I couldn t see the changes I made in k73ud   git diff k73ud  dj374  gt  master patch

User · Answer

I always love using the command line and have user friendly tools (with GUI) at my hand. Best of both worlds. Here is how I do it to compare two commits in Git.

You can show the diff between two commits like the following.

Edit your git config file in a TEXT EDITOR:

git config --global -e

Set up a proper diff tool (user friendly) like Meld like this in Windows in the Git config file:

[difftool "meld"]
cmd = "C:/Program Files (x86)/Meld/Meld.exe" "LOCAL\" \"REMOTE" --label "DIFF (ORIGINAL MY)"
prompt = false
path = C:\Program Files (x86)\Meld\Meld.exe

Meld can be installed using Chocolatey like this from the COMMAND LINE:

choco install meld

Let's define a shell function to help us compare two sha-s (commits) under [alias] in the TEXT EDITOR:

[alias]
showchangesbetween = "!w() { git difftool \"$1\" \"$2\" --dir-diff --ignore-all-space; }; w"

To compare the commits with the help of Meld (or your other favorite diff tool, just type at the COMMAND LINE:

git showchangesbetween somesha123 somesha456

The commit sha-s are easily visible typing

 git log

for example.

User · Answer

I wrote a script which displays diff between two commits  works well on Ubuntu   https   gist github com jacobabrahamb4 a60624d6274ece7a0bd2d141b53407bc     usr bin env python import sys  subprocess  os  TOOLS     bcompare    meld    def execute command       return subprocess check output command   def getTool        for tool in TOOLS          try              out   execute   which   tool   strip               if tool in out                  return tool         except subprocess CalledProcessError              pass     return None  def printUsageAndExit        print  Usage  python bdiff py  lt project gt   lt commit one gt   lt commit two gt       print  Example  python bdiff py  lt project gt  0 1      print  Example  python bdiff py  lt project gt  fhejk7fe d78ewg9we      print  Example  python bdiff py  lt project gt  0 d78ewg9we      sys exit 0   def getCommitIds name  first  second       commit1   None     commit2   None     try          first index   int first  - 1         second index   int second  - 1         if int first   lt  0 or int second   lt  0              print  Cannot handle negative values                sys exit 0          logs   execute   git    -C   name   log    --oneline    --reverse    splitlines           if first index  gt   0              commit1   logs first index  split      0          if second index  gt   0              commit2   logs second index  split      0      except ValueError          if first is not  0               commit1   first         if second is not  0               commit2   second     return commit1  commit2  def validateCommitIds name  commit1  commit2       if not commit1 and not commit2          print  Nothing to do  exit           return False     try          if commit1              execute   git    -C   name   cat-file    -t   commit1           if commit2              execute   git    -C   name   cat-file    -t   commit2       except subprocess CalledProcessError          return False     return True  def cleanup commit1  commit2           execute   rm    -rf     tmp    commit1 if commit1 else  0      tmp    commit2 if commit2 else  0      def checkoutCommit name  commit       if commit          execute   git    clone   name    tmp   commit           execute   git    -C     tmp   commit   checkout   commit       else          execute   mkdir     tmp 0     def compare tool  commit1  commit2           execute  tool    tmp    commit1 if commit1 else  0      tmp    commit2 if commit2 else  0      if   name       main         tool   getTool       if not tool          print  No GUI diff tools  install bcompare or meld          sys exit 0      if len sys argv  is not 4          printUsageAndExit        name  first  second   None  0  0     try          name  first  second   sys argv 1   sys argv 2   sys argv 3      except IndexError          printUsageAndExit        commit1  commit2   getCommitIds name  first  second       if validateCommitIds name  commit1  commit2  is False          sys exit 0       cleanup commit1  commit2       try          checkoutCommit name  commit1          checkoutCommit name  commit2          compare tool  commit1  commit2      except KeyboardInterrupt          pass     finally          cleanup commit1  commit2      sys exit 0

User · Answer

Try  git diff k73ud   dj374   to make sure to include all changes of k73ud in the resulting diff   git diff compares two endpoints  instead of a commit range   Since the OP want to see the changes introduced by k73ud  he she needs to difference between the first parent commit of k73ud  k73ud   or k73ud 1 or k73ud     That way  the diff results will include changes since k73ud parent  meaning including changes from k73ud itself   instead of changes introduced since k73ud  up to dj374    Also you can try   git diff oldCommit  newCommit git diff k73ud  dj374    and  1 space  not more    git diff oldCommit newCommit git diff k73ud dj374   And if you need to get only files names  e g  to copy hotfix them manually    git diff k73ud dj374 --name-only   And you can get changes applied to another branch   git diff k73ud dj374  gt  my patch git apply my patch

User · Answer

Let s say you have one more commit at the bottom  oldest   then this becomes pretty easy   commit dj374 made changes  commit y4746 made changes  commit k73ud made changes  commit oldestCommit made changes   Now  using below will easily server the purpose   git diff k73ud oldestCommit

User · Answer

gitk --all Select the first commit Right click on the other  then diff selected  rarr  this

User · Answer

Use this command for the difference between commit and unstaged   git difftool --dir-diff

User · Answer

If you want to see the changes introduced with each commit  try  git log -p

User · Answer

To see the difference between two different commits  let s call them a and b   use  git diff a  b    Note that the difference between a and b is opposite from b and a    To see the difference between your last commit and not yet committed changes  use  git diff   If you want to be able to come back to the difference later  you can save it in a file   git diff a  b  gt     project diff

User · Answer

Accepted answer is good   Just putting it again here  so its easy to understand  amp  try in future  git diff c1   c2  gt  mypatch 1 patch   git diff c1  c2   gt  mypatch 2 patch   git diff c1   c2  gt  mypatch 3 patch     I got the same diff for all the above commands   Above helps in 1  seeing difference of between commit c1  amp  another commit c2 2  also making a patch file that shows diff and can be used to apply changes to another branch    If it not showing difference correctly then c1  amp  c2 may be taken wrong so adjust them to a before commit like c1 to c0  or to one after like c2 to c3  Use gitk to see the commits SHAs  1st 8 characters are enough to use them as c0  c1  c2 or c3  You can also see the commits ids from Gitlab   Repository   Commits  etc   Hope that helps

User · Answer

Simplest for checking the changes in the last 2 commits after pull    git diff HEAD 2

User · Answer

I use gitk to see the difference   gitk k73ud  dj374   It has a GUI mode so that reviewing is easier

User · Answer

To see the difference between   Your working copy and staging area     git diff   Staging area and the latest commit     git diff --staged   Your working copy and commit 4ac0a6733     git diff 4ac0a6733   Commit 4ac0a6733 and the latest commit     git diff 4ac0a6733 HEAD   Commit 4ac0a6733 and commit 826793951    git diff 4ac0a6733 826793951   For more explanation see the official documentation

[git] Show diff between commits

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