Re: Is there a way to diff between a local repository and a remote one?

From: Jakub Narebski <jnareb@gmail.com>
Date: Jun 29, 2008, 12:38 UTC
Message-ID: <m38wwoifi7.fsf@localhost.localdomain>
In-Reply-To: <ce513bcc0806290429r1982fbf2i4c9a8258bc8db3c@mail.gmail.com>

"Erez Zilber" <erezzi.list@gmail.com> writes:

> Is there a way to diff between a local repository and a remote one?
>
> I could clone the remote repository and use Linux's diff, but I prefer
> to do it the right way (if possible).

There is no way to do this remotely; you have to download either snapshot (tarball) of remote repository (either from gitweb interface or other web interface if snapshot feature is enabled, or using "git archive --remote=<repo> <version>" (where <version> might be "HEAD") if it is enabled on remote), or fetch / shallow fetch / shallow clone of repository.

If local repository you want to diff is related to remote repository, the simplest way would be to fetch (or shallow fetch) the repository you want to compare into your repository, either using

  $ git remote add -f <nick> <URL>
  $ git diff HEAD <nick> #; or <nick>/HEAD, or <nick>/master

or

  $ git fetch --no-tags <URL> <branch> #; you can add --depth=1
  $ git diff HEAD FETCH_HEAD

(of course all above being in local repository; you can replace HEAD by local revision you want to compare)

-- 
Jakub Narebski
Poland
ShadeHawk on #git