git diff

See exactly what changed in your files, line by line

What it does

git diff shows the difference line by line: removed lines are marked -, added ones +. With no arguments it compares the files in your folder with the index, which means the edits you have not staged with git add yet.

With --staged (also --cached) it compares the index with the last commit: exactly what the next commit will contain. Handy to check before git commit. Name a file to see just that file, or two commits to compare them.

Syntax

git diff
git diff <file>
git diff --staged
git diff <commit> <commit>

Examples

• Show the changes that are not staged yet

  git diff

  • diff — difference: working tree vs index

• Show the changes that are already staged

  git diff --staged

  same as: git diff --cached

  • diff — difference
  • --staged — index vs the last commit

Related commands

• git status — See what changed in the folder and what is already staged
• git add — Stage changes so they go into the next commit
• git show — Show one commit: its message, author and every change in it

Practise · All commands