Git Diff Guide: Commits, Branches, Staged
Master git diff: compare working tree vs index, staged vs HEAD, commits, and branches. Use --stat, --word-diff, and external diff tools.
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Tags: developer-tools, diff, git
Git Diff Guide: Compare Commits, Branches, and Staged Changes is one of the most versatile commands in Git, and also one of the most underused. Most developers know shows uncommitted changes, but the command can compare any two points in history, filter to specific files, show word-level changes, and produce statistics. This guide covers everything from the basics to the flags that make code review faster. --- The Four Common States Before diving into flags, it helps to understand what Git tracks. At any moment, your changes exist in one of four states: Working tree — files on disk, not yet staged Index (staging area) — files staged with HEAD — the last commit on your current branch Arbitrary commit/branch — any other reference compares between these states depending on what arguments you…
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