From: Mike Hommey Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2007 17:24:52 GMT Subject: Re: Confusion about diffing branches Message-ID: <20070827172452.GA10041@glandium.org> In-Reply-To: <7vr6lozz3m.fsf@gitster.siamese.dyndns.org> On Mon, Aug 27, 2007 at 10:06:21AM -0700, Junio C Hamano wrote: > Mike Hommey writes: > > > On Mon, Aug 27, 2007 at 03:21:32PM +0200, Francis Moreau wrote: > >> > >> This "inconsistency" had already been raised before. Please refer to: > >> http://www.gelato.unsw.edu.au/archives/git/0612/35354.html > >> > >> I shared and still share your feeling about that but it seems that > >> Junio and Linus don't... > > > > Actually, they may have a good point, cf. the thread you point. > > But it is annoying that it is not documented. > > Would something like this reduce the annoyance factor? I was actually working on the attached diff, though I'm not really convinced by my wording. Mike Documentation/git-diff.txt | 32 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-- 1 files changed, 30 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-) diff --git a/Documentation/git-diff.txt b/Documentation/git-diff.txt index b36e705..082ac0b 100644 --- a/Documentation/git-diff.txt +++ b/Documentation/git-diff.txt @@ -43,9 +43,22 @@ tree and the index file, or the index file and the working tree. branch. 'git-diff' [--options] [--] [...]:: +'git-diff' [--options] .. [--] [...]:: - This form is to view the changes between two , - for example, tips of two branches. + These forms are to view the changes between two , + for example, tips of two branches. In the second form, + omitting any one of both will have the same effect + as using HEAD. + +'git-diff' [--options] ... [--] [...]:: + + This form is to view the changes on the branch containing + and up to the second , starting at a common ancestor + of both . + "git-diff A...B" is equivalent to + "git-diff `git-merge-base A B` B" + You can omit any one of both , which has the same + effect as using HEAD. Just in case if you are doing something exotic, it should be noted that all of the in the above description can be @@ -54,6 +67,9 @@ any . For a more complete list of ways to spell , see "SPECIFYING REVISIONS" section in gitlink:git-rev-parse[1]. +Be careful that despite looking like so, both ".." +and "..." forms are NOT ranges as described in +the "SPECIFYING RANGES" section in gitlink:git-rev-parse[1]. OPTIONS ------- @@ -97,6 +113,18 @@ the tip of the current branch, but limit the comparison to the file "test". <3> Compare the version before the last commit and the last commit. +Comparing branches:: ++ +------------ +$ git diff topic master <1> +$ git diff topic..master <2> +$ git diff topic...master <2> +------------ ++ +<1> Changes between the tips of the topic and the master branches. +<2> Same as <1> +<3> Changes that occured on the master branch since when the topic +branch was started off it. Limiting the diff output:: +