From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Wed, 03 Jan 2018 23:53:15 GMT
Subject: Re: Misleading documentation for git-diff-files (diff-filter)
Message-ID: <xmqqvagifqj8.fsf@gitster.mtv.corp.google.com>
In-Reply-To: <CAJzZBAT--X8GXg_knege_pZ8A=_Qk9nyMCLaoRMvjhUFGQYsZA@mail.gmail.com>

John Cheng <johnlicheng@gmail.com> writes:

> I wanted to know if git diff-files shows files that are not in the
> index but are in the working tree.

At least in the original design of Git, that would fundamentally be
impossible, as Git _only_ cares about paths that are in the index,
so a new file won't be in the picture until it is added.  Because a
change is shown as "A"dded by the diff family of commands only when
the old side lacks a path that appears in the new side, there is no
way "diff-files" that compares the index and the working tree would
see a path that is missing from the old (i.e. the index) side.