Re: `git diff` after `git checkout from-branch -- files` reports nothing

From: Bryan Turner <bturner@atlassian.com>
Date: Nov 30, 2021, 21:39 UTC
Message-ID: <CAGyf7-Ea719UNEAQSTeeSYyCcsqMo5TWXR+dSr8sDqDfj+tLAA@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <CALa_nQ=Q1h9b_BZcg9AeJurLeRpGrpUFuyoMz-DYKB3bgFJj4Q@mail.gmail.com>

On Tue, Nov 30, 2021 at 12:49 PM Noel Yap <noel.yap@gmail.com> wrote:

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>
> Thank you for filling out a Git bug report!
> Please answer the following questions to help us understand your issue.
>
> What did you do before the bug happened? (Steps to reproduce your issue)
>
> `git checkout -b to-branch; git checkout from-branch -- filenames; git
> status; git diff`

"git diff" as run here by default only shows _unstaged_ changes. Since you ran "git checkout from-branch -- filenames", those changes were _staged_. That means you'd need "git diff --cached" or "git diff --staged" to see them.

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>
> What did you expect to happen? (Expected behavior)
>
> `git status` expected to show updated files and `git diff` expected to
> show file changes.
>
> What happened instead? (Actual behavior)
>
> `git status` showed updated files but `git diff` showed no file changes.

"git status" compares the working copy to the index, so it will always show the changes, but it has 2 different blocks, staged and unstaged changes. If your changes appear in the staged block, you need "git diff --cached" or "git diff --staged". If they're in the unstaged block, they'll be visible in "git diff".

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>
> What's different between what you expected and what actually happened?
>
> `git diff` was expected to show file changes but it showed nothing instead.
>
> Anything else you want to add:
>
> If I `git reset -q HEAD -- filenames`, `git diff` starts showing file changes.

This unstaged the changes, at which point they show in a plain "git diff". They also would move from the staged block to the unstaged block in your "git status" output.

As far as I can tell everything is working as intended.

Hope this helps, Bryan Turner

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>
> Please review the rest of the bug report below.
> You can delete any lines you don't wish to share.
>
>
> [System Info]
> git version:
> git version 2.34.1
> cpu: x86_64
> no commit associated with this build
> sizeof-long: 8
> sizeof-size_t: 8
> shell-path: /bin/sh
> uname: Linux 5.11.0-36-generic #40~20.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Sat Sep 18
> 02:14:19 UTC 2021 x86_64
> compiler info: gnuc: 9.3
> libc info: glibc: 2.31
> $SHELL (typically, interactive shell): /bin/bash
>
>
> [Enabled Hooks]
> applypatch-msg
> commit-msg
> post-applypatch
> post-checkout
> post-commit
> post-merge
> post-receive
> post-rewrite
> post-update
> pre-applypatch
> pre-auto-gc
> pre-commit
> pre-merge-commit
> pre-push
> pre-rebase
> pre-receive
> prepare-commit-msg
> push-to-checkout
> sendemail-validate
> update