GIT: How to compare two GIT branches?

Git is a versatile tool to do version control of project code. We can develop code with slight modifications using branches in GIT. Sometimes we require to compare two branches to see what difference in that two branches. In this post, we will see how to see a difference between two branches in a different way.

Example1: Show all the files which are different between two branches.

git diff --name-only branch_1..branch_2

Or

git diff --name-only branch_1 branch_2

Example:

git diff --name-only bug/fix_gcc_compiler...feature/test-12430

.kitchen.vagrant.yml

.kitchen.yml

Berksfile

CHANGELOG.md

attributes/default.rb

files/default/nonprod_pvm_ca_cert

files/default/prod_pvm_ca_cert

metadata.rb

recipes/cleanup.rb

recipes/configure.rb

recipes/install.rb

recipes/install_v4.rb

recipes/install_v4_audit.rb

spec/unit/recipes/cleanup_spec.rb

spec/unit/recipes/configure_spec.rb

spec/unit/recipes/install_spec.rb

spec/wbc_nix_protectv_test/default_spec.rb

This will list all the files which have difference instead of showing content.

Example2: To see the difference of file content from different branches use below command

git diff mybranch master — myfile.cs

Example:

git diff feature/test-23438 master -- metadata.rb

diff --git a/metadata.rb b/metadata.rb

index b373613..a794431 100644

--- a/metadata.rb

+++ b/metadata.rb

@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ maintainer_email 'surendra@linuxnix.com'

 license          'all_rights'

 description      'Installs/Configures www_linuxnix_protectv'

 long_description 'Installs/Configures www_linuxnix_protectv'

-version          '1.1.1'

+version          '1.1.0'

 chef_version     '>= 12.5' if respond_to?(:chef_version)

 supports         'redhat'

Example3: Get the difference between two branches.

git diff branch_1..branch_2

Example:

git diff feature/test-23438 master

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Surendra Anne

Mr Surendra Anne is from Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh, India. He is a Linux/Open source supporter who believes in Hard work, A down to earth person, Likes to share knowledge with others, Loves dogs, Likes photography. He works as Devops Engineer with Taggle systems, an IOT automatic water metering company, Sydney . You can contact him at surendra (@) linuxnix dot com.

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