diff-files Git Command Guide

The git diff-files command compares the files in the working directory against the files in the index (staging area). It shows the differences between what’s been modified in the working directory and what’s been staged.

git diff-files Syntax:

git diff-files [<options>] [--] [<path>...]

Options:

Option	Description
-0	Omit diff output for unmerged entries
-1, -2, -3	Diff against (stage 1), (stage 2), or (stage 3) for unmerged paths
—base	Diff against merge base for unmerged paths
—ours	Diff against our side for unmerged merge paths
—theirs	Diff against their side for unmerged merge paths
—diff-filter=[(A	C
—no-renames	Turn off rename detection
—relative[=]	Generate relative diffs
—stat[=[,[,]]]	Generate a diffstat
—compact-summary	Generate compact summary of extended header information
—numstat	Show added/deleted line counts
—shortstat	Output only the last line of —stat format
—patch, -p, -u	Generate patch (default)
—no-patch, -s	Suppress diff output
—patch-with-stat	Alias for —stat —patch, -p
—name-only	Show only names of changed files
—name-status	Show only names and status of changed files
—output=	Output to a specific file
—output-indicator-new=	Specify the character to indicate new lines in —output
—output-indicator-old=	Specify the character to indicate old lines in —output
—output-indicator-context=	Specify the character to indicate context lines in —output
—verbosity=	Control amount of output
—progress	Force progress reporting
—color[=]	Show colored diff
—no-color	Turn off colored diff
—color-moved[=]	Color moved lines
—color-moved-ws=	Configure color-moved whitespace
—no-color-moved	Turn off color-moved
—color-words[=]	Color words in changed lines
—word-diff[=]	Show word diff
—word-diff-regex=	Use to determine what constitutes a word
—ignore-all-space, -w	Ignore whitespace when comparing lines
—ignore-space-change, -b	Ignore changes in amount of whitespace
—ignore-space-at-eol	Ignore changes in whitespace at EOL
—ignore-blank-lines	Ignore changes whose lines are all blank
—ignore-cr-at-eol	Ignore CR at EOL when doing a comparison
—ignore-whitespace-at-eol, -b	Ignore whitespace at EOL
—indent-heuristic, —no-indent-heuristic	Enable/disable indent heuristic
—textconv, —no-textconv	Allow/disallow external text conversion filters
—binary	Output a binary diff instead of a text diff
—abbrev[=]	Show the shortest prefix that is at least hexdigits long
—full-index	Show full pre- and post-image blob object names
—break-rewrites[=[/]], -B[[/]]	Break complete rewrite changes into pairs
—find-renames[=], -M[]	Detect renames
—find-copies[=], -C[]	Detect copies
—find-copies-harder	Try harder to find copies
—irreversible-delete, -D	Omit the preimage for deletes
—pickaxe-all, -S	Look for differences that change the number of occurrences of the specified string
—pickaxe-regex, -S	Look for differences that change the number of occurrences
—minimal	Spend extra time to make smallest possible diff
—patience	Generate diffs by using patience algorithm
—histogram	Generate diffs by using histogram algorithm
—diff-algorithm={patience	minimal
—anchored=	Generate diffs by using anchored algorithm
—diff-merges=(off	none
—exit-code	Make diff exit with codes similar to diff(1)
—quiet, -q	Disable all output
—ext-diff	Allow an external diff helper to be executed
—no-ext-diff	Disallow external diff helpers
—textconv	Allow external textconv filters to be run
—no-textconv	Disallow external textconv filters
—ignore-submodules[=]	Ignore changes to submodules
—src-prefix=	Use instead of “a/”
—dst-prefix=	Use instead of “b/”
—no-prefix	Do not show any source or destination prefix
—line-prefix=	Prepend an additional prefix to every line
—ita-invisible-in-index	Hide ‘git add -N’ entries from short format
—git	Use git-style output format
—no-index	Compare two files not in a Git repository

Parameters:

Parameter	Description
…	Restrict diff to specific files or directories

git diff-files Command Samples:

Show all differences

git diff-files

Shows all differences between working directory and index.

Show differences for specific files

git diff-files file1.txt file2.js

Shows differences only for specified files.

Show only file names

git diff-files --name-only

Lists only the names of files that differ.

Show status of changed files

git diff-files --name-status

Shows names and modification status of changed files.

Show statistics

git diff-files --stat

Shows summary statistics of changes.

Compare specific files

git diff-files -- file1.txt dir/file2.txt

Double dash separates options from paths to compare.

Ignore whitespace changes

git diff-files -w

Shows differences ignoring whitespace changes.

Show word differences

git diff-files --word-diff

Highlights individual word changes within lines.

Exit with status

git diff-files --exit-code

Returns exit code 1 if there are differences, 0 if identical.

Compact summary

git diff-files --compact-summary

Shows a compact summary of all changes.

Generate patch

git diff-files --no-index file1 file2

Compare two arbitrary files outside repository.

How do I see differences between working directory and index?

To see differences between working directory and index, use:

git diff-files

How can I see only the names of changed files?

To see only the names of changed files, run:

git diff-files --name-only

How do I get a summary of changes?

To get a summary of changes, execute:

git diff-files --stat

How can I compare specific files?

To compare specific files, use:

git diff-files <file1> <file2>

How do I see the status of changed files?

To see the status of changed files, run:

git diff-files --name-status

Applications of the git diff-files command

Reviewing changes before staging files for commit
Checking what modifications remain uncommitted
Analyzing merge conflicts at the file level
Debugging file changes during development
Preparing selective commits with targeted file reviews
Monitoring work in progress status