# Making binary diffs

2 messages from 2007-07-01 to 2007-07-01. Participants: Geoff Russell, Shawn O. Pearce.
Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/8791

## Geoff Russell, 2007-07-01 06:14

Subject: Making binary diffs
Message-ID: <93c3eada0706302314m20616a17s762704606c881278@mail.gmail.com>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/93c3eada0706302314m20616a17s762704606c881278%40mail.gmail.com

```
Hi,

"git format-patch" generates binary diffs for binary files (e.g pdfs)
in its patches,
but "git diff -p" just tells me that a binary file is different and doesn't
generate the actual diff.

Is there some switch I'm missing to tell "git diff" to generate a
binary diff on binary files?

Cheers,
Geoff Russell

```

## Shawn O. Pearce, 2007-07-01 06:17

Subject: Re: Making binary diffs
Message-ID: <20070701061710.GR32223@spearce.org>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/20070701061710.GR32223%40spearce.org
In-Reply-To: <93c3eada0706302314m20616a17s762704606c881278@mail.gmail.com>

```
Geoff Russell <geoffrey.russell@gmail.com> wrote:
> "git format-patch" generates binary diffs for binary files (e.g pdfs)
> in its patches,
> but "git diff -p" just tells me that a binary file is different and doesn't
> generate the actual diff.

--binary::
    In addition to --full-index, output "binary diff" that
    can be applied with "git apply".

Should work with all of the "diff things" like `git diff`,
`git log`, etc.  See the diff-options.txt in Documentation.

-- 
Shawn.

```