Last modified: July 29, 2024

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Checking and Understanding Changes

Git's powerful suite of commands offers an insightful look into your codebase's progression. By probing changes, tracking progress, identifying anomalies, and fostering effective collaboration becomes easier.

Viewing Changes

Different commands in Git allow you to inspect modifications in your project. Here’s a comprehensive guide to viewing changes:

I. List Uncommitted Files:

Use the git status command to see which files have been changed, added, or deleted but haven’t been committed yet.

git status

This command provides a summary of the current state of your working directory and staging area.

II. View Unstaged Changes:

To see the differences in files that have not yet been staged for commit, use the git diff command.

git diff

This command shows the changes between your working directory and the staging area.

III. See Staged but Uncommitted Changes:

If you have staged changes but haven’t committed them yet, you can view these differences with the git diff --cached command.

git diff --cached

This command reveals the differences between the staging area and the last commit.

IV. Inspect All Changes Since the Last Commit:

To see all changes (both staged and unstaged) since the last commit, use the git diff HEAD command.

git diff HEAD

This command compares your working directory and staging area against the last commit.

V. Highlight Word-Level Changes:

For a more granular view of changes, the git diff --word-diff command shows differences at the word level rather than the line level.

git diff --word-diff

This command highlights the exact words that have been added or removed, providing a clearer view of the changes.

VI. Audit a File's Change History:

To track changes line by line in a specific file, use the git blame command followed by the filename. This command annotates each line with information about the last commit that modified it.

git blame filename

To audit changes in index.html, use:

git blame index.html

VII. Viewing Changes in a Specific File:

You can use git diff followed by the filename to see changes in a particular file.

git diff filename

To view changes in style.css, use:

git diff style.css

Comparing Commits

Dive deeper into differences between commits using the following Git commands:

I. Visualize Commit History:

To see a chronological list of commits along with their messages, authors, and dates, use the git log command.

git log

This command provides a detailed history of all commits in the repository, helping you trace changes over time.

II. Visualize a More Detailed Log:

For a more detailed commit history, including differences between commits, use:

git log -p

III. Graphical Representation of Commit History:

To visualize the commit history as a graph, showing branches and merges, use:

git log --graph --oneline --all

IV. Contrast Two Specific Commits:

To compare the differences between two specific commits, use the git diff command followed by the commit IDs.

git diff commit_1 commit_2

To compare commit a1b2c3d4 with commit e5f6g7h8, you would run:

git diff a1b2c3d4 e5f6g7h8

This command details the changes made between the two specified commits.

V. Review a File's State at a Given Commit:

To view the state and changes of a specific file at a particular commit, use the git show command followed by the commit ID and the filename.

git show commit_id:filename

To see the state of index.html at commit a1b2c3d4, use:

git show a1b2c3d4:index.html

This command displays the content of the specified file as it was at the given commit.