git - Difference between file in local repository and origin

Question

I want to find the differences between a file I have in my local repository vs. what is in the origin master.

I know that there is git diff. However, I just want to isolate it down to this one particular file.

For simplicity, let’s say the file is named file1.txt and it has a local file path = [local_path] and in the origin it has filepath = [remote-path].

What would be the Git command I need to type?

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For those that are using Eclipse, I just found out that you can just right?click?→ Compare With?→ Branch, Tag or Reference?→ select the appropriate version and there you go.

Answer 1

If [remote-path] and [local-path] are the same, you can do

$ git fetch origin master
$ git diff origin/master -- [local-path]

Note 1: The second command above will compare against the locally stored remote tracking branch. The fetch command is required to update the remote tracking branch to be in sync with the contents of the remote server. Alternatively, you can just do

$ git diff master:<path-or-file-name>

Note 2: master can be replaced in the above examples with any branch name