I have two different files in different branches. How can I diff them in one command?
Something like
# git diff branch1/foo.txt branch2/foo-another.txt I could check out the other file, diff it and restore, but that's quite dirty solution.
- 5@EugenKonkov It's not a duplicate because this question is asking how to diff different files in different branches. The linked question only asks how to diff the same file in different branches.Steve– Steve2018-07-07 03:58:32 +00:00Commented Jul 7, 2018 at 3:58
- If one or both files is in the working tree (file system), consider this questionJosiah Yoder– Josiah Yoder2022-12-13 23:13:13 +00:00Commented Dec 13, 2022 at 23:13
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5 Answers
git diff branch1:full/path/to/foo.txt branch2:full/path/to/foo-another.txt You can also use relative paths:
git diff branch1:./relative/path/to/foo.txt branch2:./relative/path/to/foo-another.txt 
4 Comments
Steve Jorgensen
Awesome! I was certainly not able to infer that from
git help diff. By the way, those don't have to be branch names ahead of the colons, but can be any kind of commit references (e.g. SHA-1 values).
Eris
Important Note: Git on windows requires the full itemspec to be a unix name. i.e. branch1:full\path\to\foo.txt fails, while branch1:full/path/to/foo.txt works fine, as does full\path\to\foo.txt (no branch)
gMale
use
git difftool and then drop the branch2: and that will allow you to edit a file in the current working tree (to bring over changes from branch1)
Sola Yang
Tried on linux with git version 1.8.3.1, only relative paths allowed.
Sidenote: no need for full paths, you can start with ./ for relative paths. It can be handy sometimes.
git diff branch1:./relative/path/to/foo.txt branch2:./relative/path/to/foo-another.txt 
Comments
Off-topic answer -- diffing the same file in different branches
Just to add it for I find it a very straightforward syntax :
git diff <branch1> <branch2> <filepath> Also works with relative refs like for example :
# compare the previous committed state from HEAD with the state branch1 was 3 commits ago git diff HEAD^ <branch1>~3 <filepath> 
5 Comments
Étienne Miret
The OP specifically asked for "different files". Your answer is about comparing the same file in two different branches.
Romain Valeri
@EtienneMiret You're absolutely right, I missed that important point. Off-topic answer.
Matthieu
Still, many people land on this question because they want to get the difference for the same file, and this answer is useful.
jtlz2
@Matthieu Then why not link to a relevant answer rather?
Matthieu
@jtlz2 I'm not sure I understand. This answer is relevant for that problem (albeit not the OP). The cause is Google that lands us here ;)
There are many ways to compare files from two diferents branchs. For example:
If the name is the same or different:
git diff branch1:file branch2:fileExample:
git diff branch1:full/path/to/foo.txt branch2:full/path/to/foo-another.txtOnly if the name is the same and you want to compare your current working directory to some branch:
git diff ..someBranch path/to/fileExample:
git diff ..branch2 full/path/to/foo.txtIn this example you are comparing the file from your actual branch to the file in the master branch.
You can check this response:
1 Comment
Hammerite
"Only if the name is the same and you want to compare your current working directory to some branch": This is misleading. It compares **the latest commit to the current branch"" to some other branch. Your wording implies that it will compare the file actually found on disk, if there are uncommitted changes; it's not so.
You can specify a start and range for git diff to be applied to. The range is indicated with the .. notation.
branch1=somebranch branch2=someotherbranch git diff ${branch1}..${branch2} -- file_path 
