Editing Git Cookbook (section)

== Reports and diffs ==

=== View all branches and commit messages: ===

<syntaxhighlight lang="bash">
$ git log --oneline
</syntaxhighlight>

=== View commit messages for a single branch: === 

<syntaxhighlight lang="bash">
$ git log --oneline [branchname]
</syntaxhighlight>

=== View the files touched between two commits === 

Where you include just enough of SHA1 and SHA2 to identify the commits (usually about 4 characters).
<syntaxhighlight lang="bash">
$ git diff --name-only SHA1 SHA2
</syntaxhighlight>

=== View all files modified by the commits in a single branch === 

<syntaxhighlight lang="bash">
$ git diff --name-status master..<branch>
</syntaxhighlight>

=== List all the files in a single commit ===

One way (preferred):

<syntaxhighlight lang="bash">
$ git diff-tree --no-commit-id --name-only -r bd61ad98
index.html
javascript/application.js
javascript/ie6.js
</syntaxhighlight>

Another way:

<syntaxhighlight lang="bash">
$ git show --pretty="format:" --name-only bd61ad98
index.html
javascript/application.js
javascript/ie6.js
</syntaxhighlight>

The `--no-commit-id` suppresses the commit ID output.
The `--pretty` argument specifies an empty format string to avoid the cruft at the beginning.
The `--name-only` argument shows only the file names that were affected (Thanks Hank).
The `-r` argument is to recurse into sub-trees

=== View all commits for a single file === 

<syntaxhighlight lang="bash">
$ git log --oneline <path>
</syntaxhighlight>

=== View changes in a single file between two branches === 

<syntaxhighlight lang="bash">
$ git diff <branch1>...<branch2> -- <path/to/file>
</syntaxhighlight>

=== Create a patch file for work done in a git branch === 

To get all the changes after a specific commit:
<syntaxhighlight lang="bash">
$ git diff -p <commit_string> > <path/to/patchfile.patch>
</syntaxhighlight>

Or between two specific commits (the newer one goes first):

<syntaxhighlight lang="bash">
$ git diff -p <newer_commit_string> <older_commit_string> > <path/to/patchfile.patch>
</syntaxhighlight>

(To narrow it down to a specific file, see the 'git diff` example above.)

<syntaxhighlight lang="bash">
$ git diff -p <branch1>...<branch2> > <path/to/patchfile.patch>
</syntaxhighlight>

=== Applying a patch created with "git diff" ===

<syntaxhighlight lang="bash">
$ patch -p1 < <path/to/patchfile.patch>
</syntaxhighlight>

If the directory structure is different, say if you are editing `myapp2/path/to/file_to_edit.py` using changes made to `myapp1/path/to/file_to_edit.py` then enter the new path when prompted by the `patch` program.