Git diff ignore

Question

Is it somehow possible to ignore certain files during git diff? I'm specifically interested in filtering out Makefile.in, Makefile, configure (and all that auto-generated crap).

You could add them all to your `.gitignore` file; if they are auto-generated, does it make sense to store them in your source control system? — sarnold, Aug 13 '10 at 05:57
I'm not storing them there, that's the whole problem. If I would I would just take them out, easy-peasy. This is upstream problem. But I need to diff two different upstream branches and all I get is just tons of this auto-generated junk. Pretty much impossible to do any real comparison work. — Šimon Tóth, Aug 13 '10 at 05:59

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 13 '10 at 07:02

You can try passing a list of files to git diff, and it will execute the diff only on those files.

Depending on how your code is setup, it can be as easy as:

git diff otherbranchname -- src/     # only give me diffs from src/

or as unsightly/complex as:

git diff otherbranchname -- $( git ls-files |
    perl -lne'next if /(?:[mM]akefile(?:\.in)?|configure|whateverelse)/;print' )
# diff all files which don't match the pattern

Depending on whether the files you want to ignore are managed by Git in the current branch or not, you'll need to replace the git ls-files with a find *; use instead a find . and add |.git to the Perl expression.

Tailor this as you see fit, possibly using the directories / file names you know you'd like to diff, rather than using the git ls-files or find.

Untracked files won't show up in the diff, though - I'd think `ls-files` would always be plenty, unless for some reason you *want* a diff for some untracked files. — Cascabel, Aug 13 '10 at 11:39

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 26 '11 at 21:02

Another similar solution (add to .git/config):

[alias]
    mydiff = !git diff -- $(git diff --name-only | grep -Ev "([mM]akefile|configure)")

Then run it with:

git mydiff

Note that git diff --name-only is better than git ls-files because it will pass a shorter list of files to git diff, since only files that are modified will be included. I've run into trouble with exceeding the maximum number of arguments in large projects when using git ls-files.

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 13 '10 at 09:25

0

Regarding gitignore and autotools integration, you might be interested in git.mk: http://mail.gnome.org/archives/desktop-devel-list/2009-April/msg00211.html

answered Aug 13 '10 at 09:25

elmarco

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score 0 · Answer 4 · edited May 23 '17 at 10:27

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As detailed here you can use an exclude pathspec magic

git diff -- . ':(exclude)Makefile*' ':(exclude)configure'

edited May 23 '17 at 10:27

Community

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answered Oct 09 '16 at 12:53

Mr_and_Mrs_D

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score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Mar 08 '22 at 19:55

If you want to ignore the content of the diffs but still do care whether the files have changed, this is a job for .gitattributes and the diff attribute. Say you have a directory structure like

repo
  repo/foo
    repo/foo/Makefile
  repo/bar
    repo/bar/Makefile.in
    repo/bar/baz
      repo/bar/baz/Makefile.in

If you want to ignore all three Makefiles, create repo/.gitattributes as:

Makefile* -diff

If you want to ignore bar/Makefile.in but not the others, create repo/bar/.gitattributes as

Makefile.in -diff

but also repo/bar/baz/.gitattributes as

Makefile.in diff

For more detail of what can be done with .gitattributes, see the docs; my examples are drawn from theirs, made specific to diff.

(h/t to user3589608's answer here)

Git diff ignore

5 Answers5