git - Show diff between commits

Question

I am using Git on Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx).

I have made some commits to my master.

However, I want to get the difference between these commits. All of them are on my master branch.

For example:

commit dj374
made changes

commit y4746
made changes

commit k73ud
made changes

I want to get the difference between k73ud and dj374. However, when I did the following I couldn't see the changes I made in k73ud.

git diff k73ud..dj374 > master.patch

Answer 1

Try

git diff k73ud^..dj374

to make sure to include all changes of k73ud in the resulting diff.

git diff compares two endpoints (instead of a commit range). Since the OP want to see the changes introduced by k73ud, he/she needs to difference between the first parent commit of k73ud: k73ud^ (or k73ud^1 or k73ud~).

That way, the diff results will include changes since k73ud parent (meaning including changes from k73ud itself), instead of changes introduced since k73ud (up to dj374).

Also you can try:

git diff oldCommit..newCommit
git diff k73ud..dj374 

and (1 space, not more):

git diff oldCommit newCommit
git diff k73ud dj374

And if you need to get only files names (e.g. to copy hotfix them manually):

git diff k73ud dj374 --name-only

And you can get changes applied to another branch:

git diff k73ud dj374 > my.patch
git apply my.patch