Difference between a git commit and the working directory?
Yes, but it depends a bit on your definition on what the “current project state” is. The manual for git diff goes on.
If you are interested in comparing with the staged changes:
git diff [--options] --cached [<commit>] [--] [<path>...]
This form is to view the changes you staged for the next commit relative to the named
<commit>
. Typically you would want comparison with the latest commit, so if you do not give<commit>
, it defaults to HEAD. If HEAD does not exist (e.g. unborned branches) and<commit>
is not given, it shows all staged changes.--staged
is a synonym of--cached
.
If you are interested in comparing with the unstaged changes:
git diff [--options] <commit> [--] [<path>...]
This form is to view the changes you have in your working tree relative to the named
<commit>
. You can use HEAD to compare it with the latest commit, or a branch name to compare with the tip of a different branch.
Or if you are just interested in comparing any two commits (one could be HEAD):
git diff [--options] <commit> <commit> [--] [<path>...]
This is to view the changes between two arbitrary
<commit>
s.
So you might want to run git diff someOldCommit HEAD
to see the differences between someOldCommit
and the current HEAD.
It ist just simple:
git diff HEAD
Explanation: Current changes in the working directory compared with the last commit.