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Describe two-dot and three-dot notation for diff endpoints.
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Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
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glandium authored and gitster committed Aug 28, 2007
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Showing 1 changed file with 36 additions and 7 deletions.
43 changes: 36 additions & 7 deletions Documentation/git-diff.txt
Expand Up @@ -22,10 +22,10 @@ tree and the index file, or the index file and the working tree.
words, the differences are what you _could_ tell git to
further add to the index but you still haven't. You can
stage these changes by using gitlink:git-add[1].

If exactly two paths are given, and at least one is untracked,
compare the two files / directories. This behavior can be
forced by --no-index.
+
If exactly two paths are given, and at least one is untracked,
compare the two files / directories. This behavior can be
forced by --no-index.

'git-diff' [--options] --cached [<commit>] [--] [<path>...]::

Expand All @@ -44,16 +44,33 @@ tree and the index file, or the index file and the working tree.

'git-diff' [--options] <commit> <commit> [--] [<path>...]::

This form is to view the changes between two <commit>,
for example, tips of two branches.
This is to view the changes between two arbitrary
<commit>.

'git-diff' [--options] <commit>..<commit> [--] [<path>...]::

This is synonymous to the previous form. If <commit> on
one side is omitted, it will have the same effect as
using HEAD instead.

'git-diff' [--options] <commit>...<commit> [--] [<path>...]::

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 to
"git-diff $(git-merge-base A B) B". You can omit any one
of <commit>, which has the same effect as using HEAD instead.

Just in case if you are doing something exotic, it should be
noted that all of the <commit> in the above description can be
any <tree-ish>.

For a more complete list of ways to spell <commit>, see
"SPECIFYING REVISIONS" section in gitlink:git-rev-parse[1].

However, "diff" is about comparing two _endpoints_, not ranges,
and the range notations ("<commit>..<commit>" and
"<commit>...<commit>") do not mean a range as defined in the
"SPECIFYING RANGES" section in gitlink:git-rev-parse[1].

OPTIONS
-------
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -97,6 +114,18 @@ the tip of the current branch, but limit the comparison to the
file "test".
<3> Compare the version before the last commit and the last commit.

Comparing branches::
+
------------
$ git diff topic master <1>
$ git diff topic..master <2>
$ git diff topic...master <3>
------------
+
<1> Changes between the tips of the topic and the master branches.
<2> Same as above.
<3> Changes that occured on the master branch since when the topic
branch was started off it.

Limiting the diff output::
+
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