Re: [PATCH] docs: clarify git diff modes of operation

From: Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>
Date: Nov 4, 2010, 21:50 UTC
Message-ID: <20101104215056.GA18475@burratino>
In-Reply-To: <20101104211729.GA5551@sigill.intra.peff.net>

Jeff King wrote:

> Jonathan, does this look ok based on our earlier discussion?

Yep, it's way better than the current state.

The list of operation modes still seems wrong: in addition to the meaning of

	git diff --cached

from an unborn branch not fitting the model of implicit HEAD as mentioned before, there is also

	git diff

not meaning the same thing as

	git diff HEAD

.  So I guess technically the separate operation modes are

	git diff [--cached]
	git diff [--cached] <tree>
	git diff <tree> <tree>
	git diff --no-index <path> <path>
	git diff <blob> <blob>

where --cached means "use the version of the work tree stored in the index in place of the real thing".

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