I have a script that works fine in one branch and is broken in another. I want to look at the two versions side-by-side and see what's different. Is there a way to do this?
To be clear I'm not looking for a compare tool (I use Beyond Compare). I'm looking for a Git diff command that will allow me to compare the master version to my current branch version to see what has changed. I'm not in the middle of a merge or anything. I just want to say something like
git diff mybranch/myfile.cs master/myfile.cs
git diff
can show you the difference between two commits:
git diff mybranch master -- myfile.cs
Or, equivalently:
git diff mybranch..master -- myfile.cs
Note you must specify the relative path to the file. So if the file were in the src directory, you'd say src/myfile.cs
instead of myfile.cs
.
Using the latter syntax, if either side is HEAD
it may be omitted (e.g., master..
compares master
to HEAD
).
You may also be interested in mybranch...master
(from git diff
documentation):
This form is to view the changes on the branch containing and up to the second
<commit>
, starting at a common ancestor of both<commit>
.git diff A...B
is equivalent togit diff $(git-merge-base A B) B
.
In other words, this will give a diff of changes in master
since it diverged from mybranch
(but without new changes since then in mybranch
).
In all cases, the --
separator before the file name indicates the end of command line flags (mind the space between the separator and the filename). This is optional unless Git will get confused if the argument refers to a commit or a file, but including it is not a bad habit to get into. See Dietrich Epp's answer to Meaning of Git checkout double dashes for a few examples.
The same arguments can be passed to git difftool
if you have one configured.
Answered 2023-09-20 20:55:56
git diff branch1 branch2 myfile.cs
. (The --
shouldn't be necessary anymore, as it can only take up to two revision arguments.) - anyone --
. Common and easy mistake to make.) - anyone git diff --name-status branch1..branch2
(probably obvious, but thought I'd mention it in case someone else has the same trouble I did). - anyone You can do this:
git diff branch1:path/to/file branch2:path/to/file
If you have difftool configured, then you can also:
git difftool branch1:path/to/file branch2:path/to/file
Related question: How do I view 'git diff' output with my preferred diff tool/ viewer?
Answered 2023-09-20 20:55:56
branch1:./file
). This is also useful if the file is in a separate location between branches (e.g. git diff branch1:old/path/to/file branch2:new/path/to/file
). - anyone git diff branch1 branch2 path/to/file
. - anyone More modern syntax:
git diff ..master path/to/file
The double-dot prefix means "from the current working directory to". You can also say:
master..
, i.e. the reverse of above. This is the same as master
.mybranch..master
, explicitly referencing a state other than the current working tree.v2.0.1..master
, i.e., referencing a tag.[refspec]..[refspec]
, basically anything identifiable as a code state to Git.Answered 2023-09-20 20:55:56
There are many ways to compare files from two different branches:
Option 1: If you want to compare the file from n specific branch to another specific branch:
git diff branch1name branch2name path/to/file
Example:
git diff mybranch/myfile.cs mysecondbranch/myfile.cs
In this example you are comparing the file in “mybranch” branch to the file in the “mysecondbranch” branch.
Option 2: Simple way:
git diff branch1:file branch2:file
Example:
git diff mybranch:myfile.cs mysecondbranch:myfile.cs
This example is similar to the option 1.
Option 3: If you want to compare your current working directory to some branch:
git diff ..someBranch path/to/file
Example:
git diff ..master myfile.cs
In this example you are comparing the file from your actual branch to the file in the master branch.
Answered 2023-09-20 20:55:56
For Visual Studio Code I strongly suggest the extension:
Git History Diff docs
You can use it two compare between files or even branches!
From console, you can simply use this command :
git diff <Your_Branch> <Branch_To_Compare_With> -- myfile.cs
Answered 2023-09-20 20:55:56
If you want to make a diff against the current branch you can commit it and use:
git diff $BRANCH -- path/to/file
This way it will diff from the current branch to the referenced branch ($BRANCH
).
Answered 2023-09-20 20:55:56
I simply do git diff branch1 branch2 path/to/file
This checks for differences between the files. Changes in branch1
would be in red. Changes in branch2
would be in green.
It's assumed that branch1
is the past and branch2
is the future. You can reverse this by reversing the order of the branches in the diff: git diff branch2 branch1
Answered 2023-09-20 20:55:56
There are two scenarios to compare files:
Scenario 1: Compare files at remote branches (both branches should exists in the remote repository)
Scenario 2: Compare local files (at the local working area copy) to the files at the remote repository.
The logic is simple. If you provide two branch names to diff, it will always compare the remote branches, and if you provide only one branch name, it will always compare your local working copy with the remote repository (the one you provided). You can use range to provide remote repositories.
E.g., check out a branch:
git checkout branch1
git diff branch2 [filename]
In this case, if you provide filename, it will compare your local copy of filename with the remote branch named "branch2".
git diff branch1 branch2 [filename]
In this case, it will compare filename from remote branches named "branch1" vs "branch2"
git diff ..branch2 [filename]
In this case also, it will compare filename from remote branches named "branch1" vs "branch2". So, it's the same as above. However, if you have just created a branch from another branch, say "master" and your current branch doesn't exists on the remote repository, it will compare remote "master" vs. remote "branch2".
Answered 2023-09-20 20:55:56
I am agreeing with the answer by dahlbyk. If you want the diff to be written to a diff file for code reviews, use the following command.
git diff branch master -- filepath/filename.extension > filename.diff --cached
Answered 2023-09-20 20:55:56
In my case, I use the below command:
git diff <branch name> -- <file path + file name>
This command can help you compare the same file in two different branches.
Answered 2023-09-20 20:55:56
Use commit hashes as this:
git diff <hash1> <hash2> <filename>
where hash1 can be any commit from any branch, and the same for hash2.
Answered 2023-09-20 20:55:56
There is another interesting point about these various ways of doing the comparison: I want to compare a file in my current branch to the same file in another branch. If I use
git difftool otherbranch.. filespec
I end up comparing two files which are actually in my temporary folder. However, If I use
git difftool otherbranch filespec
I end up comparing a file in my temporary folder (the version on otherbranch) with the actual file in my Git folder, which a) makes it much easier to tell which is which, and b) means I can use the diff tool (Beyond Compare 4 in my case) to copy changes from my other branch into my current branch.
Answered 2023-09-20 20:55:56
In order to compare two files in Git Bash you need to use the command:
git diff <Branch name>..master -- Filename.extension
This command will show the difference between the two files in Bash itself.
Answered 2023-09-20 20:55:56
The best way to do it is by using git diff
in the following way:
git diff <source_branch> <target_branch> -- file_path
It will check the difference between files in those branches. Take a look at this article for more information about Git commands and how they work.
Answered 2023-09-20 20:55:56