Re: diff for deleted file only, when changed to directory

From: Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>
Date: Dec 8, 2010, 08:21 UTC
Message-ID: <20101208082103.GA4927@burratino>
In-Reply-To: <AANLkTimXOKC_9TJU1foNkTqPHouFPouzZw3XU_9Za=na@mail.gmail.com>

Bert Wesarg wrote:

>                                                                git
> diff --cached -- foo shows me the diff for both the file foo and file
> foo/bar.

[...]

>                                              But for the case
> file->directory, I would like to see only the deleted diff, not
> recursing into the directory.

If I understand correctly, this is a documentation bug and feature request.

The documentation bug: the "git diff" documentation says something like

	git diff [--options] [<tree>[..<tree>]] [--] [<path>...]

but the <path>s after "--" are actually patterns (path specifiers). See [1] ([RFD] git glossary: define pathspec, 2010-11-29).

The feature request: there is no way to specify an "exact match" or "negative match" when specifying paths. At least "negative match" has been suggested before.

[1] http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.version-control.git/162379