Showing which files have changed between two revisions

Question

I want to merge two branches that have been separated for a while and wanted to know which files have been modified   Came across this link  http   linux yyz us git-howto html which was quite useful   The tools to compare branches I ve come across are    git diff master  branch git log master  branch git shortlog master  branch   Was wondering if there s something like  git status master  branch  to only see those files that are different between the two branches   Without creating a new tool  I think this is the closest you can get to do that now  which of course will show repeats if a file was modified more than once     git diff master  branch   grep   diff    Was wondering if there s something I missed

User · Answer

When working collaboratively  or on multiple features at once  it s common that the upstream or even your master contains work that is not included in your branch  and will incorrectly appear in basic diffs   If your Upstream may have moved  you should do this   git fetch git diff origin master      Just using git diff master can include  or fail to include  relevant changes

User · Answer

There is also a GUI based method   You can use gitk     Run     gitk --all  Right click on a commit of a branch and select Mark this commit in the pop-up menu   Right click on a commit of another branch and select Diff this -  marked commit or Diff marked commit -  this     Then there will be a changed files list in the right bottom panel and diff details in the left bottom panel

User · Answer

If you like GUI and are using Windows  here is an easy way    Download WinMerge Check out the two branches into different folders Do a folder by folder compare using WinMerge  You can also easily make modifications if one of the branches is the one you are working on

User · Answer

If you are using IntelliJ IDEA  you can also compare any branch with your current working branch  See http   www jetbrains com idea webhelp merging-deleting-and-comparing-branches html d288093e3827 for more info  This is available in the free edition as well

User · Answer

You can also use a visual diff   For example  if you are using Sourcetree  you can simply select any two commits in log view    I personally prefer using a GUI in most cases for this  and I m posting this for those who may not be familiar with GUI options

User · Answer

And if you are looking for changes only among certain file s   then   git diff branch1 branch2 -- myfile1 js myfile2 js   branch1 is optional and your current branch  the branch you are on  will be considered by default if branch1 is not provided  e g   git diff master -- controller index js

User · Answer

There are plenty of answers here  but I wanted to add something that I commonly use  IF you are in one of the branches that you would like to compare I typically do one of the following  For the sake of this answer we will say that we are in our secondary branch  Depending on what view you need at the time will depend on which you choose  but most of the time I m using the second option of the two  The first option may be handy if you are trying to revert back to an original copy -- either way  both get the job done   This will compare master to the branch that we are in  which is secondary  and the original code will be the added lines and the new code will be considered the removed lines  git diff   master   OR  This will also compare master to the branch that we are in  which is secondary  and the original code will be the old lines and the new code will be the new lines  git diff master

User · Answer

git diff revision n revision m   if revision n and revision m are successive commits then it outputs same as  git show revision m

User · Answer

There are two branches lets say   A  Branch on which you are working  B  Another branch with which you want to compare    Being in branch A you can type  git diff --color B   then this will give you a output of     The important point about this is    Text in green is inside present in Branch A Text in red is present in Branch B

User · Answer

Try    git diff --stat --color master  branchName   This will give you more info about each change  while still using the same number of lines   You can also flip the branches to get an even clearer picture of the difference if you were to merge the other way      git diff --stat --color branchName  master

User · Answer

For people who are looking for a GUI solution  Git Cola has a very nice  Branch Diff Viewer  Diff -  Branches

User · Answer

If anyone is trying to generate a diff file from two branches     git diff master  otherbranch  gt  myDiffFile diff

User · Answer

You can also easily compare branches for changed files using for example TortoiseGit  Just click on Browse References and pick the branches you want to compare    For example if you compare your branch with master you will get as a result list of files that will be changed in master if you decide to merge your-branch into master     Remmber that you will have different result if you compare master with your-branch and your-branch with master

User · Answer

Also keep in mind that git has cheap and easy branching  If I think a merge could be problematic I create a branch for the merge  So if master has the changes I want to merge in and ba is my branch that needs the code from master I might do the following   git checkout ba git checkout -b ba-merge git merge master      review new code and fix conflicts     git commit git checkout ba git merge ba-merge git branch -d ba-merge git merge master   End result is that I got to try out the merge on a throw-away branch before screwing with my branch  If I get my self tangled up I can just delete the ba-merge branch and start over

User · Answer

One more option  using meld in this case   git difftool -d master otherbranch   This allows not only to see the differences between files  but also provides a easy way to point and click into a specific file

User · Answer

If you are using Github   Github Enterprise  you can use the Web UI by hitting the url  compare of your repository path  for instance  https   github com http4s http4s compare  You can select the branch   commit   tag that you want to compare   And the diff will be presented in the github interface at the url  compare  x1     x2  where are x2 and x1 are the branch   commit   tag you want to compare  for instance  https   github com http4s http4s compare main   dotty You can see more in the Github Doc

User · Answer

To compare the current branch against master branch    git diff --name-status master  To compare any two branches    git diff --name-status firstbranch  yourBranchName  There is more options to git diff in the official documentation  and specifically --name-status option

User · Answer

Note that git makes it easy to just try out the merge and back away from any problems if you don t like the result  It might be easier than looking for potential problems in advance

[git] Showing which files have changed between two revisions

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