diff-tree Git Command Guide

The git diff-tree command is used to compare the content and mode of blobs found via two tree objects. If there is only one tree reference given, the commit is compared with its parents.

git diff-tree Syntax:

git diff-tree [--stdin] [-m] [-s] [-v] [--no-commit-id] [--pretty] [-t] [-r] [-c | --cc] [--combined-all-paths] [--root] [--merge-base] [<common-diff-options>] <tree-ish> [<tree-ish>] [<path>...]

Options:

Option	Description
—stdin	Read commit references from stdin
-m	Consider merge commits
-s	Suppress diff output
-v	Verbose mode
—no-commit-id	Suppress commit ID output
—pretty	Show header information in pretty format
-t	Show tree entry for root
-r	Recurse into sub-trees
-c, —cc	Show combined diffs for merges
—combined-all-paths	Include all paths in combined diffs
—root	Include root when comparing with initial commit
—merge-base	Compare with merge-base of given commits
-p, —patch	Generate patch output
—stat	Show diff statistics
—raw	Generate raw diff format (default)
—color	Show colored diff

Parameters:

Parameter	Description
	First tree/commit to compare
[]	Optional second tree/commit (default: parents)
[…]	Optional paths to limit comparison

Caution

Use —cc option with merge commits to show combined diffs. Ensure tree-ish references are valid commit IDs or tree hashes.

git diff-tree Command Samples:

Compare two commits with patch output

git diff-tree -p HEAD~1 HEAD

Shows the differences between two commits in patch format.

Show diff statistics

git diff-tree --stat HEAD~1 HEAD

Displays summary statistics of changes between commits.

Compare with merge-base

git diff-tree --merge-base HEAD HEAD~3

Compares current HEAD with the merge-base of HEAD and HEAD~3.

Read commits from stdin

echo "HEAD" | git diff-tree --stdin --pretty

Reads commit references from standard input.

Show combined diff for merge commit

git diff-tree -c -p HEAD

Displays combined diff format for a merge commit showing changes from all parents.

Tip

Use —pretty for formatted commit headers and —cc for combined merge diffs.

How do I compare two specific commits?

To compare two specific commits, use:

git diff-tree <commit1> <commit2>

How can I show diffs for merge commits?

To show diffs for merge commits, use the -c or —cc option:

git diff-tree -c HEAD

How do I process multiple commits in a script?

To process multiple commits, use —stdin with commit IDs:

echo -e "HEAD~1\nHEAD" | git diff-tree --stdin --pretty

What is the difference between -c and —cc?

-c shows combined diff with one column per parent, while —cc omits any commit that contains only changes from one side of the merge.

How can I limit the diff to specific paths?

To limit to specific paths, add them at the end:

git diff-tree HEAD~1 HEAD -- path/to/file

How do I show only names and status of changed files?

To show only names and status, use with —name-status:

git diff-tree --name-status HEAD~1 HEAD

Applications of the git diff-tree command

1. Analyzing commit changes and code evolution
2. Scripting automated diff processing in CI/CD pipelines
3. Building repository analysis and audit tools
4. Creating custom Git workflow integrations
5. Detecting file changes and renames between commits