How do I diff the same file between two different commits on the same branch

Question

In Git  how could I compare the same file between two different commits  not contiguous  on the same branch  master for example    I m searching for a compare feature like the one in Visual SourceSafe  VSS  or Team Foundation Server  TFS   Is it possible in Git

User · Answer

If you want to make a diff with more than one file, with the method specified by @mipadi:

E.g. diff between HEAD and your master, to find all .coffee files:

git diff master..HEAD -- `find your_search_folder/ -name '*.coffee'`

This will recursively search your your_search_folder/ for all .coffee files and make a diff between them and their master versions.

User · Answer

All the other responses are more complete  so upvote them  This one is just to remember that you can avoid knowing the id of the recent commit    Usually  I set my self in the branch that I want to compare and run diff tools knowing the old commit uid  You can use other notations   git checkout master git difftool 6f8bba my file relative path py  Also  check this other response here to set the tool you want git open to compare the file  Configuring diff tool with  gitconfig And to learn more about difftool  go to the difftool doc

User · Answer

If you have several files or directories and want to compare non continuous commits  you could do this   Make a temporary branch   revision  in this example   git checkout -b revision   Rewind to the first commit target  git reset --hard  lt commit target gt    Cherry picking on those commit interested  git cherry-pick  lt commit interested gt        Apply diff  git diff  lt commit-target gt     When you done  git branch -D revision

User · Answer

From the git-diff manpage   git diff  --options   lt commit gt   lt commit gt   --    lt path gt        For instance  to see the difference for a file  main c  between now and two commits back  here are three equivalent commands     git diff HEAD   HEAD main c   git diff HEAD    HEAD -- main c   git diff HEAD 2 HEAD -- main c

User · Answer

Just another way to use Git s awesomeness     git difftool HEAD HEAD  N   PATH FILE ext

User · Answer

If you have configured the  difftool  you can use  git difftool revision 1 file 1 revision 2 file 2   Example  Comparing a file from its last commit to its previous commit on the same branch  Assuming that if you are in your project root folder   git difftool HEAD src main java com xyz test MyApp java HEAD  src main java com xyz test MyApp java   You should have the following entries in your    gitconfig or in project  git config file  Install the p4merge  This is my preferred diff and merge tool    merge      tool   p4merge     keepBackup   false  diff      tool   p4merge     keepBackup   false  difftool  p4merge       path   C  Program Files  x86  Perforce p4merge exe  mergetool      keepBackup   false  difftool      keepBackup   false  mergetool  p4merge       path   C  Program Files  x86  Perforce p4merge exe     cmd   p4merge exe    BASE      LOCAL      REMOTE      MERGED

User · Answer

Check   git log  copy the SHA-1 ID of the two different commits  and run the git diff command with those IDs  for example     git diff  sha-id-one   sha-id-two

User · Answer

You can also compare two different files in two different revisions  like this   git diff  lt revision 1 gt   lt file 1 gt   lt revision 2 gt   lt file 2 gt

User · Answer

If you want to see all changes to the file between the two commits on a commit-by-commit basis  you can also do  git log -u  start commit   end commit -- path to file

User · Answer

If you want a simple visual comparison on Windows such as you can get in Visual SourceSafe or Team Foundation Server  TFS   try this    right-click on the file in File Explorer select  Git History    Note  After upgrading to Windows 10 I have lost the Git context menu options  However  you can achieve the same thing using  gitk  or  gitk filename  in a command window   Once you call  Git History   the Git GUI tool will start  with a history of the file in the top left pane  Select one of the versions you would like to compare  Then right-click on the second version and choose either  Diff this -  selected  or  Diff selected -  this  Colour-coded differences will appear in the lower left-hand pane

User · Answer

Here is a Perl script that prints out Git diff commands for a given file as found in a Git log command   E g   git log pom xml   perl gldiff pl 3 pom xml   Yields   git diff 5cc287 pom xml e8e420 pom xml git diff 3aa914 pom xml 7476e1 pom xml git diff 422bfd pom xml f92ad8 pom xml   which could then be cut and pasted in a shell window session or piped to  bin sh   Notes    the number  3 in this case  specifies how many lines to print the file  pom xml in this case  must agree in both places  you could wrap it in a shell function to provide the same file in both places  or put it in a binary directory as a shell script   Code     gldiff pl use strict   my  max    shift  my  file   shift   die  not a number  unless  max    m  d    die  not a file    unless -f  file   my  count  my  lines   while   lt  gt         chomp      next unless s  commit s             my  commit    1      push  lines  sprintf   s  s   substr  commit 0 6   file      if   lines    2            printf  git diff  s  s n    lines           lines                 last if    count  gt    max  2

[git] How do I diff the same file between two different commits on the same branch?

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