Finding diff between current and last version

Question

Using Git, how can you find the difference between the current and the last version?

git diff last version:HEAD

If you use GitHub for the cloud location of your repo it is very simple: navigate to your project and click on the heading "commits" in the table that displays your project — David Lundquist, May 29 '17 at 19:20
The meaning of "current and the last version" really should be clarified in the question. — faintsignal, Feb 05 '19 at 16:36
You may want to look at this discussion too: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/46446901/how-can-i-see-local-history-changes-in-visual-studio-code — Alma Rahat, Oct 09 '22 at 13:13

score 1531 · Accepted Answer · edited Dec 20 '21 at 08:44

1531

I don't really understand the meaning of "last version".

As the previous commit can be accessed with HEAD^, I think that you are looking for something like:

git diff HEAD^ HEAD

That also can be applied for a :commithash

git diff $commithash^ $commithash

As of Git 1.8.5, @ is an alias for HEAD, so you can use:

git diff @~..@

The following will also work:

git show

If you want to know the diff between head and any commit you can use:

git diff commit_id HEAD

And this will launch your visual diff tool (if configured):

git difftool HEAD^ HEAD

Since comparison to HEAD is default you can omit it (as pointed out by Orient):

git diff @^
git diff HEAD^
git diff commit_id

Warnings

@ScottF and @Panzercrisis explain in the comments that on Windows the ~ character must be used instead of ^.

edited Dec 20 '21 at 08:44

Nam G VU

33,193
69
233
372

answered Mar 28 '12 at 08:19

Francisco Puga

23,869
5
48
64

I wanted something like committed version and version before it...git diff head head-1 – Rajeev Mar 28 '12 at 09:13
7

As of Git 1.8.5, `@` is an alias for `HEAD`. And since `~` and `^` are the same when only going one commit back, I find `git diff @~..@` much easier to type. – Andrew Sep 22 '14 at 01:47
99

@Andrew `git show` is easier still, since `@~..@` is the default thing to show. – amalloy Nov 06 '14 at 04:28
@amalloy Ah! That's right, `HEAD` is implicit for a lot of subcommands. – Andrew Nov 06 '14 at 06:05
git difftool HEAD^ HEAD does nothing at all for me. Am I missing something? – Scorb Sep 08 '16 at 02:44
@ScottF Do you have your difftool configured? http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6412516/configuring-diff-tool-with-gitconfig – Francisco Puga Sep 08 '16 at 06:28
`HEAD^` does not work in my case, but `HEAD~1` does, and so does `git show`. I was thinking this may be a difference between Git 1.x and Git 2.x, but @ScottF may have found the real reason. Maybe the answer could be edited to contain some information about this as well? – Panzercrisis Sep 22 '16 at 14:01
git show is absolutely useful if you just wanna get an idea of whatz goin on! – Ceylan Mumun Kocabaş May 19 '17 at 14:35
6

The problem with `git show` is that if `HEAD` is a merge commit you won't get what you expect since the merge commit itself may not have any changes itself. `git diff HEAD^ HEAD` will show the actual changes between the versions – RubenLaguna Apr 24 '18 at 07:17
3

Remark: For Windows Command Prompt, `^` is an escape character. Could type `^^` to represent a `^` – Johnny Wong Feb 27 '20 at 03:34
git diff HEAD~1 HEAD (MacOS work as expected). git diff HEAD^ HEAD (no matches found: HEAD^) – Jorge Tovar Dec 27 '21 at 14:26

score 196 · Answer 2 · edited May 06 '20 at 14:44

196

Assuming "current version" is the working directory (uncommitted modifications) and "last version" is HEAD (last committed modifications for the current branch), simply do

git diff HEAD

Credit for the following goes to user Cerran.

And if you always skip the staging area with -a when you commit, then you can simply use git diff.

Summary

git diff shows unstaged changes.
git diff --cached shows staged changes.
git diff HEAD shows all changes (both staged and unstaged).

Source: git-diff(1) Manual Page – Cerran

edited May 06 '20 at 14:44

Peter Mortensen

30,738
21
105
131

answered Mar 28 '12 at 08:17

CharlesB

86,532
28
194
218

18

And if you always skip the staging area with `-a` when you commit, then you can simply use `git diff`. <1> **`git diff`** shows **unstaged** changes. <2> **`git diff --cached`** shows **staged** changes. <3> **`git diff HEAD`** shows **all** changes (both staged and unstaged). Source: [git-diff(1) Manual Page](http://git-scm.com/docs/git-diff) – Cerran Feb 20 '14 at 13:16
What is the name of "the current unstaged version" in git? Is there actually a name? – Mathieu CAROFF Jan 17 '19 at 08:48
`git diff HEAD --stat` if you're looking for the number of lines changed. – Brunno Vodola Martins Jul 14 '22 at 01:34

score 142 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:10

142

As pointed out on a comment by amalloy, if by "current and last versions" you mean the last commit and the commit before that, you could simply use

git show

edited May 23 '17 at 12:10

Community

1
1

answered Oct 14 '15 at 17:46

Nighto

3,994
3
23
28

16

Use `git show HEAD~1` to show the last-but-one commit, and `git show HEAD~2`, etc. for older commits. Show just a single file via `git show HEAD~2 my_file`. – Florian Brucker Mar 03 '16 at 10:43
Perhaps address *[RubenLaguna's note](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9903541/finding-diff-between-current-and-last-version#comment87007426_9903611)* in the answer? (But ***without*** "Edit:", "Update:", or similar - the answer should appear as if it was written today.) – Peter Mortensen Mar 30 '22 at 16:50

Tomilov Anatoliy · Answer 4 · 2019-02-15T19:47:47.577

66

Difference between last but one commit and last commit (plus current state, if any):

git diff HEAD~

or even (easier to type)

git diff @~

where @ is the synonim for HEAD of current branch and ~ means "give me the parent of mentioned revision".

edited Feb 15 '19 at 19:47

answered Nov 06 '14 at 03:57

Tomilov Anatoliy

15,657
10
64
169

I quite like `git diff HEAD^` (rather than the equivalent `HEAD~` form). It's a tad easier to remember for an "old git" like myself ;-) – sxc731 Jul 12 '16 at 15:44
3

The carrot is an issue in some terminals. Nice to have the option – light24bulbs Jan 22 '18 at 19:00
1

Answer could be improved by explaining what the `~` and `@` mean. – Bob Stein Jan 17 '19 at 20:16
1

If we just want to check what is committed in the last commit, don't use this (as dirty changes affect the diff). A shorter syntax to really `diff HEAD^ HEAD` should be `git diff @^!`. See https://git-scm.com/docs/gitrevisions for `r1^!` – Johnny Wong Feb 27 '20 at 03:39
@JohnnyWong Thank you for clarification. I mentioned "current state" to not confuse readers. – Tomilov Anatoliy Feb 27 '20 at 04:54
`~` is *not* easy to type on many keyboards. Isn't there a more verbose version? – Peter Mortensen May 06 '20 at 14:46
@PeterMortensen you can try ^ – Tomilov Anatoliy May 06 '20 at 17:12

score 63 · Answer 5 · edited Jan 24 '18 at 21:03

63

You can do it this way too:

Compare with the previous commit

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

Compare with the current and previous two commits

git diff --name-status HEAD~2..HEAD

edited Jan 24 '18 at 21:03

Peter Mortensen

30,738
21
105
131

answered Oct 13 '13 at 22:40

naoko

5,064
4
35
28

score 18 · Answer 6 · edited Jan 24 '18 at 21:04

18

Just use the cached flag if you added, but haven't committed yet:

git diff --cached --color

edited Jan 24 '18 at 21:04

Peter Mortensen

30,738
21
105
131

answered Dec 01 '13 at 16:35

Andrew

3,733
1
35
36

1

This was exactly what I was looking for when I found this question. Thanks! – William Rogers Dec 16 '16 at 18:54
1

"cached" as a synonym for "staged"? (Or "staged changes" or *""indexed""*?) – Peter Mortensen Mar 30 '22 at 16:47

score 14 · Answer 7 · answered Mar 16 '17 at 19:09

14

Quick and simple, assuming you're in the master:

    git diff (checkout_id):file.txt file.txt

Example:

    git diff asdfioei91819280din198:file.txt file.txt

answered Mar 16 '17 at 19:09

RAFisherman

889
1
8
9

2

Note that after the `(checkout_id):` you need a relative path to the filename from the root of the repo. For me I tried the above from the directory the file was in, and it failed, until I changed it to `git diff 3d44feb544150cf35b2a99d5917e294e10596f8e:./file.txt file.txt` Also, OP's original intent isn't clear, but this answer is the only one that addresses if you want the "difference between the current and last version" OF A FILE. I originally tried `git diff HEAD~1 -- file.txt` but it didn't work because last change to that file was 10 commits ago. – Starman Oct 07 '20 at 15:57
1

This was exactly what I was looking for when I found this question. Thanks! – Sony Santos Mar 19 '22 at 14:45

score 9 · Answer 8 · answered Dec 16 '20 at 06:04

9

If you want the changes for the last n commits, you can use the following:

git diff HEAD~n

So for the last 5 commits (count including your current commit) from the current commit, it would be:

git diff HEAD~5

answered Dec 16 '20 at 06:04

Vasantha Ganesh

4,570
3
25
33

score 8 · Answer 9 · edited May 06 '20 at 14:50

8

Firstly, use "git log" to list the logs for the repository.

Now, select the two commit IDs, pertaining to the two commits. You want to see the differences (example - Top most commit and some older commit (as per your expectation of current-version and some old version)).

Next, use:

git diff <commit_id1> <commit_id2>

or

git difftool <commit_id1> <commit_id2>

edited May 06 '20 at 14:50

Peter Mortensen

30,738
21
105
131

answered Feb 01 '16 at 12:55

parasrish

3,864
26
32

score 7 · Answer 10 · edited May 06 '20 at 16:38

7

If the top commit is pointed to by HEAD then you can do something like this:

commit1 -> HEAD
commit2 -> HEAD~1
commit3 -> HEAD~2

Diff between the first and second commit:

git diff HEAD~1 HEAD

Diff between first and third commit:

git diff HEAD~2 HEAD

Diff between second and third commit:

git diff HEAD~2 HEAD~1

And so on...

edited May 06 '20 at 16:38

Peter Mortensen

30,738
21
105
131

answered Jan 29 '19 at 23:44

bit_cracker007

2,341
1
26
26

score 2 · Answer 11 · edited May 06 '20 at 14:59

2

I use Bitbucket with the Eclipse IDE with the Eclipse EGit plugin installed.

I compare a file from any version of its history (like SVN).

Menu Project Explorer → File → right click → Team → Show in history.

This will bring the history of all changes on that file. Now Ctrl click and select any two versions→ "Compare with each other".

edited May 06 '20 at 14:59

Peter Mortensen

30,738
21
105
131

answered Aug 28 '18 at 19:33

Mandrake

411
4
2

score 2 · Answer 12 · edited May 06 '20 at 15:03

This will also work for tags (remove the 'uniq' below and other parts if you need to see all changes):

 git diff v1.58 HEAD

The below is the same, and that could be useful for continuous integration (CI) for microservices in a monolithic repository:

git diff v1.58 HEAD  --name-only | sort -u | awk 'BEGIN {FS="/"} {print $1}' | uniq
<Folder Name>

(Credit - https://dzone.com/articles/build-test-and-deploy-apps-independently-from-a-mo)

score 1 · Answer 13 · answered Jul 09 '20 at 08:28

1

to show individual changes in a commit, to head.

git show Head~0

to show accumulated changes in a commit, to head.

git diff Head~0

where 0 is the desired number of commits.

answered Jul 09 '20 at 08:28

DeyaEldeen

10,847
10
42
75

Eduardo Santana · Answer 14 · 2020-12-07T14:37:51.430

0

If last versions means last tag, and current versions means HEAD (current state), it's just a diff with the last tag:

Looking for tags:

$ git tag --list
...
v20.11.23.4
v20.11.25.1
v20.11.25.2
v20.11.25.351

The last tag would be:

$ git tag --list | tail -n 1
v20.11.25.351

Putting it together:

tag=$(git tag --list | tail -n 1)
git diff $tag

edited Dec 07 '20 at 14:37

answered Dec 07 '20 at 13:49

Eduardo Santana

5,780
3
19
21

Finding diff between current and last version

14 Answers14

Warnings

Linked