# diff-filter can't identify renaming if not done directly 3 messages from 2020-12-04 to 2020-12-04. Participants: Sofia Syria, Jeff King, Junio C Hamano. Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/54762 ## Sofia Syria, 2020-12-04 14:59 Subject: diff-filter can't identify renaming if not done directly Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/CAOsoBv7ors39UzVgq5VcqEwoaEbkXb5ApEf5NqW4bo_fymdruQ%40mail.gmail.com ``` Hello, quick question about using diff-filter in linux. In the scenario that in my repository, I first copy file1 to file2, then move file2 to file3 and delete file1, "git diff" returns: diff --git a/file1 b/file3 similarity index 100% rename from file1 rename to file3 but running "git diff --diff-filter=r" doesn't return anything. Only flag "t" will return the change. Can this be considered as a bug? ``` ## Jeff King, 2020-12-04 16:39 Subject: Re: diff-filter can't identify renaming if not done directly Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/X8pmURHeWcNLwmvs%40coredump.intra.peff.net In-Reply-To: ``` On Fri, Dec 04, 2020 at 03:59:03PM +0100, Sofia Syria wrote: > quick question about using diff-filter in linux. In the scenario > that in my repository, I first copy file1 to file2, then move file2 to > file3 and delete file1, "git diff" returns: > > diff --git a/file1 b/file3 > similarity index 100% > rename from file1 > rename to file3 > > but running "git diff --diff-filter=r" doesn't return anything. Only > flag "t" will return the change. Can this be considered as a bug? Lowercase filters exclude particular types. From "git help diff": --diff-filter=[(A|C|D|M|R|T|U|X|B)...[*]] Select only files that are Added (A), Copied (C), Deleted (D), Modified (M), Renamed (R), have their type (i.e. regular file, symlink, submodule, ...) changed (T), are Unmerged (U), are Unknown (X), or have had their pairing Broken (B). Any combination of the filter characters (including none) can be used. When * (All-or-none) is added to the combination, all paths are selected if there is any file that matches other criteria in the comparison; if there is no file that matches other criteria, nothing is selected. Also, these upper-case letters can be downcased to exclude. E.g. --diff-filter=ad excludes added and deleted paths. So "--diff-filter=R" asks to see only renames. But "--diff-filter=r" asks to exclude them. And "--diff-filter=t" excludes typechanges, which means that renames are still OK. Doing "--diff-filter=a", etc, would still show it as well. -Peff ``` ## Junio C Hamano, 2020-12-04 20:07 Subject: Re: diff-filter can't identify renaming if not done directly Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/xmqqh7p1e3mr.fsf%40gitster.c.googlers.com In-Reply-To: ``` Jeff King writes: > On Fri, Dec 04, 2020 at 03:59:03PM +0100, Sofia Syria wrote: > >> quick question about using diff-filter in linux. In the scenario >> that in my repository, I first copy file1 to file2, then move file2 to >> file3 and delete file1, "git diff" returns: >> >> diff --git a/file1 b/file3 >> similarity index 100% >> rename from file1 >> rename to file3 >> >> but running "git diff --diff-filter=r" doesn't return anything. Only >> flag "t" will return the change. Can this be considered as a bug? > > Lowercase filters exclude particular types. From "git help diff": > > --diff-filter=[(A|C|D|M|R|T|U|X|B)...[*]] > Select only files that are Added (A), Copied (C), Deleted > (D), Modified (M), Renamed (R), have their type (i.e. regular > file, symlink, submodule, ...) changed (T), are Unmerged (U), > are Unknown (X), or have had their pairing Broken (B). Any > combination of the filter characters (including none) can be > used. When * (All-or-none) is added to the combination, all > paths are selected if there is any file that matches other > criteria in the comparison; if there is no file that matches > other criteria, nothing is selected. > > Also, these upper-case letters can be downcased to exclude. > E.g. --diff-filter=ad excludes added and deleted paths. > > So "--diff-filter=R" asks to see only renames. But "--diff-filter=r" > asks to exclude them. And "--diff-filter=t" excludes typechanges, which > means that renames are still OK. Doing "--diff-filter=a", etc, would > still show it as well. Correct. I should have scanned my inbox to find that the same question was asked twice and one of the copies already got a good answer. ```