From: david@lang.hm
Date: Tue, 03 Feb 2009 06:08:44 GMT
Subject: Re: how to diff versions of a file
Message-ID: <alpine.DEB.1.10.0902022206060.28633@asgard.lang.hm>
In-Reply-To: <1c5969370902022100h7c03bbb6h2d9f443f877d89ec@mail.gmail.com>

On Tue, 3 Feb 2009, Matt Graham wrote:

> Hi,
> I'm curious if there's a way to diff between 2 arbitrary versions of a file.
>
> For example, how can I see the diff between tree.c on HEAD and from 3
> edits (of tree.c) ago?
>
> I can do git log and then manually use commit names to do the diff,
> but I'm hoping there's a single command that will let me do that.

I don't think it's trivial

If you just wanted three commits ago you could do

git diff HEAD..HEAD^^^ tree.c

but three changes to tree.c ago I think you need to do multiple iterations 
of git blame to find out what commit was three edits ago.

after you have the commit for three edits ago you do
git diff HEAD..COMMITID tree.c

David Lang