| 1 | [[generate_patch_text_with_p]] |
| 2 | Generating patch text with -p |
| 3 | ----------------------------- |
| 4 | |
| 5 | Running |
| 6 | linkgit:git-diff[1], |
| 7 | linkgit:git-log[1], |
| 8 | linkgit:git-show[1], |
| 9 | linkgit:git-diff-index[1], |
| 10 | linkgit:git-diff-tree[1], or |
| 11 | linkgit:git-diff-files[1] |
| 12 | with the `-p` option produces patch text. |
| 13 | You can customize the creation of patch text via the |
| 14 | `GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF` and the `GIT_DIFF_OPTS` environment variables |
| 15 | (see linkgit:git[1]), and the `diff` attribute (see linkgit:gitattributes[5]). |
| 16 | |
| 17 | What the `-p` option produces is slightly different from the traditional |
| 18 | diff format: |
| 19 | |
| 20 | 1. It is preceded by a "git diff" header that looks like this: |
| 21 | |
| 22 | diff --git a/file1 b/file2 |
| 23 | + |
| 24 | The `a/` and `b/` filenames are the same unless rename/copy is |
| 25 | involved. Especially, even for a creation or a deletion, |
| 26 | `/dev/null` is _not_ used in place of the `a/` or `b/` filenames. |
| 27 | + |
| 28 | When a rename/copy is involved, `file1` and `file2` show the |
| 29 | name of the source file of the rename/copy and the name of |
| 30 | the file that the rename/copy produces, respectively. |
| 31 | |
| 32 | 2. It is followed by one or more extended header lines: |
| 33 | + |
| 34 | [synopsis] |
| 35 | old mode <mode> |
| 36 | new mode <mode> |
| 37 | deleted file mode <mode> |
| 38 | new file mode <mode> |
| 39 | copy from <path> |
| 40 | copy to <path> |
| 41 | rename from <path> |
| 42 | rename to <path> |
| 43 | similarity index <number> |
| 44 | dissimilarity index <number> |
| 45 | index <hash>..<hash> <mode> |
| 46 | + |
| 47 | File modes _<mode>_ are printed as 6-digit octal numbers including the file type |
| 48 | and file permission bits. |
| 49 | + |
| 50 | Path names in extended headers do not include the `a/` and `b/` prefixes. |
| 51 | + |
| 52 | The similarity index is the percentage of unchanged lines, and |
| 53 | the dissimilarity index is the percentage of changed lines. It |
| 54 | is a rounded down integer, followed by a percent sign. The |
| 55 | similarity index value of 100% is thus reserved for two equal |
| 56 | files, while 100% dissimilarity means that no line from the old |
| 57 | file made it into the new one. |
| 58 | + |
| 59 | The index line includes the blob object names before and after the change. |
| 60 | The _<mode>_ is included if the file mode does not change; otherwise, |
| 61 | separate lines indicate the old and the new mode. |
| 62 | |
| 63 | 3. Pathnames with "unusual" characters are quoted as explained for |
| 64 | the configuration variable `core.quotePath` (see |
| 65 | linkgit:git-config[1]). |
| 66 | |
| 67 | 4. All the `file1` files in the output refer to files before the |
| 68 | commit, and all the `file2` files refer to files after the commit. |
| 69 | It is incorrect to apply each change to each file sequentially. For |
| 70 | example, this patch will swap a and b: |
| 71 | |
| 72 | diff --git a/a b/b |
| 73 | rename from a |
| 74 | rename to b |
| 75 | diff --git a/b b/a |
| 76 | rename from b |
| 77 | rename to a |
| 78 | |
| 79 | 5. Hunk headers mention the name of the function to which the hunk |
| 80 | applies. See "Defining a custom hunk-header" in |
| 81 | linkgit:gitattributes[5] for details of how to tailor this to |
| 82 | specific languages. |
| 83 | |
| 84 | |
| 85 | Combined diff format |
| 86 | -------------------- |
| 87 | |
| 88 | Any diff-generating command can take the `-c` or `--cc` option to |
| 89 | produce a 'combined diff' when showing a merge. This is the default |
| 90 | format when showing merges with linkgit:git-diff[1] or |
| 91 | linkgit:git-show[1]. Note also that you can give suitable |
| 92 | `--diff-merges` option to any of these commands to force generation of |
| 93 | diffs in a specific format. |
| 94 | |
| 95 | A "combined diff" format looks like this: |
| 96 | |
| 97 | ------------ |
| 98 | diff --combined describe.c |
| 99 | index fabadb8,cc95eb0..4866510 |
| 100 | --- a/describe.c |
| 101 | +++ b/describe.c |
| 102 | @@@ -98,20 -98,12 +98,20 @@@ |
| 103 | return (a_date > b_date) ? -1 : (a_date == b_date) ? 0 : 1; |
| 104 | } |
| 105 | |
| 106 | - static void describe(char *arg) |
| 107 | -static void describe(struct commit *cmit, int last_one) |
| 108 | ++static void describe(char *arg, int last_one) |
| 109 | { |
| 110 | + unsigned char sha1[20]; |
| 111 | + struct commit *cmit; |
| 112 | struct commit_list *list; |
| 113 | static int initialized = 0; |
| 114 | struct commit_name *n; |
| 115 | |
| 116 | + if (get_sha1(arg, sha1) < 0) |
| 117 | + usage(describe_usage); |
| 118 | + cmit = lookup_commit_reference(sha1); |
| 119 | + if (!cmit) |
| 120 | + usage(describe_usage); |
| 121 | + |
| 122 | if (!initialized) { |
| 123 | initialized = 1; |
| 124 | for_each_ref(get_name); |
| 125 | ------------ |
| 126 | |
| 127 | 1. It is preceded by a "git diff" header, that looks like |
| 128 | this (when the `-c` option is used): |
| 129 | |
| 130 | diff --combined file |
| 131 | + |
| 132 | or like this (when the `--cc` option is used): |
| 133 | |
| 134 | diff --cc file |
| 135 | |
| 136 | 2. It is followed by one or more extended header lines |
| 137 | (this example shows a merge with two parents): |
| 138 | + |
| 139 | [synopsis] |
| 140 | index <hash>,<hash>..<hash> |
| 141 | mode <mode>,<mode>..<mode> |
| 142 | new file mode <mode> |
| 143 | deleted file mode <mode>,<mode> |
| 144 | + |
| 145 | The `mode <mode>,<mode>..<mode>` line appears only if at least one of |
| 146 | the <mode> is different from the rest. Extended headers with |
| 147 | information about detected content movement (renames and |
| 148 | copying detection) are designed to work with the diff of two |
| 149 | _<tree-ish>_ and are not used by combined diff format. |
| 150 | |
| 151 | 3. It is followed by a two-line from-file/to-file header: |
| 152 | |
| 153 | --- a/file |
| 154 | +++ b/file |
| 155 | + |
| 156 | Similar to the two-line header for the traditional 'unified' diff |
| 157 | format, `/dev/null` is used to signal created or deleted |
| 158 | files. |
| 159 | + |
| 160 | However, if the --combined-all-paths option is provided, instead of a |
| 161 | two-line from-file/to-file, you get an N+1 line from-file/to-file header, |
| 162 | where N is the number of parents in the merge commit: |
| 163 | |
| 164 | --- a/file |
| 165 | --- a/file |
| 166 | --- a/file |
| 167 | +++ b/file |
| 168 | + |
| 169 | This extended format can be useful if rename or copy detection is |
| 170 | active, to allow you to see the original name of the file in different |
| 171 | parents. |
| 172 | |
| 173 | 4. Chunk header format is modified to prevent people from |
| 174 | accidentally feeding it to `patch -p1`. Combined diff format |
| 175 | was created for review of merge commit changes, and was not |
| 176 | meant to be applied. The change is similar to the change in the |
| 177 | extended 'index' header: |
| 178 | |
| 179 | @@@ <from-file-range> <from-file-range> <to-file-range> @@@ |
| 180 | + |
| 181 | There are (number of parents + 1) `@` characters in the chunk |
| 182 | header for combined diff format. |
| 183 | |
| 184 | Unlike the traditional 'unified' diff format, which shows two |
| 185 | files A and B with a single column that has `-` (minus -- |
| 186 | appears in A but removed in B), `+` (plus -- missing in A but |
| 187 | added to B), or `" "` (space -- unchanged) prefix, this format |
| 188 | compares two or more files file1, file2,... with one file X, and |
| 189 | shows how X differs from each of fileN. One column for each of |
| 190 | fileN is prepended to the output line to note how X's line is |
| 191 | different from it. |
| 192 | |
| 193 | A `-` character in the column N means that the line appears in |
| 194 | fileN but it does not appear in the result. A `+` character |
| 195 | in the column N means that the line appears in the result, |
| 196 | and fileN does not have that line (in other words, the line was |
| 197 | added, from the point of view of that parent). |
| 198 | |
| 199 | In the above example output, the function signature was changed |
| 200 | from both files (hence two `-` removals from both file1 and |
| 201 | file2, plus `++` to mean one line that was added does not appear |
| 202 | in either file1 or file2). Also, eight other lines are the same |
| 203 | from file1 but do not appear in file2 (hence prefixed with `+`). |
| 204 | |
| 205 | When shown by `git diff-tree -c`, it compares the parents of a |
| 206 | merge commit with the merge result (i.e. file1..fileN are the |
| 207 | parents). When shown by `git diff-files -c`, it compares the |
| 208 | two unresolved merge parents with the working tree file |
| 209 | (i.e. file1 is stage 2 aka "our version", file2 is stage 3 aka |
| 210 | "their version"). |