How to git diff without typing the whole path

Question

I'm using the github windows shell and I'll do the following

git status

see a list of modified files and want to remind myself what's changed. I'll have to type something like

git diff Source\FooBar\Pages\FooBar.aspx

That seems like a lot of characters to have to type. Is there some easier workflow to look at diffs that I'm not seeing?

This would be better served on SO as it deals with programming tools/implementation and not conceptual/design issues. Please do not re-ask it there as this can be migrated. A good rule to follow is if your question has you in front of your IDE it belongs on SO. If it has you in front of a whiteboard it belongs on Programmers. — Walter, Dec 31 '12 at 23:36
What specifically do you want to avoid? Do you want to avoid having to see the diff of each file individually? Do you want to get the diff of a particular file without typing the full path? — akton, Jan 01 '13 at 09:33
I specifically want to avoid typing the entire path for each file I want to `git diff` — user76379, Jan 01 '13 at 14:22

score 39 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 22 '13 at 13:18

39

git diff -- **/FooBar.aspx

In general * stands for any part of a filename while ** stands for any subpath. E.g. git diff -- **/main/**/*.aspx will diff only aspx files that are residing somewhere in a subdirectory of main or main itself. This applies to other commands that accept paths, like commit and add.

answered Nov 22 '13 at 13:18

jartur

509
4
6

On Windows, this works for commit and add but oddly doesn't work for diff. It complains that you need to use '--' to separate paths, even though you are. – Thomas Higginbotham Aug 13 '15 at 19:37
unfortunately this is not working on my zsh on ubuntu machine – Aayush Neupane May 24 '21 at 04:21

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 01 '13 at 03:03

1

If you want to review all changes, you can simply use git diff. It will not list new files, though.

To selectively look at changes, I would recommend to use a GUI, e.g., git gui or gitk.

answered Jan 01 '13 at 03:03

Philipp Claßen

41,306
31
146
239

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 02 '13 at 15:59

I use Console2 to host bash.

With this I'm able to use Ctrl + Click and Drag to highlight text which can then be copied to the clipboard and pasted into further command lines.

I use this to copy file paths.

This enabled me to type git diff [Ctrl+V] and get the command line I want.

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Jan 02 '13 at 20:29

1

most terminals (e.g. console2 for windows) have auto-completion.

start typing and press tab

usually git can auto-complete after 2 characters. like:

gi tab di tab

will give you git diff. if your folders are not named similarly than it might auto-complete after a single character. like if your project root had three files:

readme
/source/
/bin/

you could simply type r, s, or b then tab to auto-type any of those file names.

fyi, auto complete works for terminal and git commands, file and directory names, branch and tag names, but unfortunately not for commit ids.

answered Jan 02 '13 at 20:29

xero

4,077
22
39

1

autocomplete works for the gi `tab` di `tab` part but then not for the filename part. which, when your filename is usually something long like `Source\FooBar\Pages\FooBar.aspx` it makes it really frustrating to use – user76379 Jan 27 '13 at 03:19
that is totally not true (in windows msysgit, which i use). i just tried it in an open repo. `gi` tab `di` tab `st` tab `c` tab... becomes `git diff style/css/` it auto types the slashes an everything. – xero Jan 29 '13 at 20:02

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Sep 06 '22 at 20:55

# A quick and crude idea:
function gitdiff()
{
  # git diff returns repo relative names, so we must add the
  # the git root, i.e. parent of the git dir.
  # This may not work in all git repo styles?
  local GIT_FILES_ROOT="$(git rev-parse --git-dir)/.."
  git diff -- "${GIT_FILES_ROOT}/${1}"
}
function _dp_git_diff_complete()
{
  local cur
  cur=${COMP_WORDS[COMP_CWORD]}
  COMPREPLY=($(git diff --name-only | \egrep "^$cur"))
}
complete -F _dp_git_diff_complete gitdiff

# However, you must use:
# $ gitdiff [prefix]<tab>
# not:
# $ git diff [prefix]<tab>
# because I don't know how to make a completion for a multi-word command,
# e.g. git diff.
# Of course, you can use any other name you'd like besides `gitdiff'
# This will suck if the diff command needs additional options or parameters.
# There are ways to tell the completion API to handle options, but it's not a
# short topic.

How to git diff without typing the whole path

5 Answers5

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