Version Control with Git

Simple git diff Example

Here we construct the scenario presented in Figure 8-1, run through the scenario, and watch the various forms of git diff in action. First, let’s set up a simple repository with two files in it:

$ mkdir /tmp/diff_example
$ cd /tmp/diff_example

$ git init
Initialized empty Git repository in /tmp/diff_example/.git/

$ echo "foo" > file1
$ echo "bar" > file2

$ git add file1 file2

$ git commit -m"Add file1 and file2"
[master (root-commit)]: created fec5ba5: "Add file1 and file2"
 2 files changed, 2 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
 create mode 100644 file1
 create mode 100644 file2

Next, let’s edit file1 by replacing the word “foo” with “quux”:

$ echo "quux" > file1

The file1 has been modified in the working directory but has not been staged. This state is not yet the situation depicted in Figure 8-1, but you can still make a comparison. You should expect output if you compare the working directory with the index or the existing HEAD versions. However, there should be no difference between the index and the HEAD because nothing has been staged. (In other words, what is staged is still the current HEAD tree.)

# working directory versus index
$ git diff
diff --git a/file1 b/file1
index 257cc56..d90bda0 100644
--- a/file1
+++ b/file1
@@ -1 +1 @@
-foo
+quux

# working directory versus HEAD
$ git diff HEAD
diff --git a/file1 b/file1
index 257cc56..d90bda0 100644
--- a/file1
+++ b/file1
@@ -1 +1 @@
-foo
+quux

# index vs HEAD, identical still
$ git diff --cached
$

Applying the maxim ...