about summary refs log tree commit diff
path: root/Documentation/diff-options.txt
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/diff-options.txt')
-rw-r--r--Documentation/diff-options.txt756
1 files changed, 756 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/diff-options.txt b/Documentation/diff-options.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..09faee3b44
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/diff-options.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,756 @@
+// Please don't remove this comment as asciidoc behaves badly when
+// the first non-empty line is ifdef/ifndef. The symptom is that
+// without this comment the <git-diff-core> attribute conditionally
+// defined below ends up being defined unconditionally.
+// Last checked with asciidoc 7.0.2.
+
+ifndef::git-format-patch[]
+ifndef::git-diff[]
+ifndef::git-log[]
+:git-diff-core: 1
+endif::git-log[]
+endif::git-diff[]
+endif::git-format-patch[]
+
+ifdef::git-format-patch[]
+-p::
+--no-stat::
+	Generate plain patches without any diffstats.
+endif::git-format-patch[]
+
+ifndef::git-format-patch[]
+-p::
+-u::
+--patch::
+	Generate patch (see section on generating patches).
+ifdef::git-diff[]
+	This is the default.
+endif::git-diff[]
+
+-s::
+--no-patch::
+	Suppress diff output. Useful for commands like `git show` that
+	show the patch by default, or to cancel the effect of `--patch`.
+endif::git-format-patch[]
+
+-U<n>::
+--unified=<n>::
+	Generate diffs with <n> lines of context instead of
+	the usual three. Implies `--patch`.
+ifndef::git-format-patch[]
+	Implies `-p`.
+endif::git-format-patch[]
+
+--output=<file>::
+	Output to a specific file instead of stdout.
+
+--output-indicator-new=<char>::
+--output-indicator-old=<char>::
+--output-indicator-context=<char>::
+	Specify the character used to indicate new, old or context
+	lines in the generated patch. Normally they are '+', '-' and
+	' ' respectively.
+
+ifndef::git-format-patch[]
+--raw::
+ifndef::git-log[]
+	Generate the diff in raw format.
+ifdef::git-diff-core[]
+	This is the default.
+endif::git-diff-core[]
+endif::git-log[]
+ifdef::git-log[]
+	For each commit, show a summary of changes using the raw diff
+	format. See the "RAW OUTPUT FORMAT" section of
+	linkgit:git-diff[1]. This is different from showing the log
+	itself in raw format, which you can achieve with
+	`--format=raw`.
+endif::git-log[]
+endif::git-format-patch[]
+
+ifndef::git-format-patch[]
+--patch-with-raw::
+	Synonym for `-p --raw`.
+endif::git-format-patch[]
+
+--indent-heuristic::
+	Enable the heuristic that shifts diff hunk boundaries to make patches
+	easier to read. This is the default.
+
+--no-indent-heuristic::
+	Disable the indent heuristic.
+
+--minimal::
+	Spend extra time to make sure the smallest possible
+	diff is produced.
+
+--patience::
+	Generate a diff using the "patience diff" algorithm.
+
+--histogram::
+	Generate a diff using the "histogram diff" algorithm.
+
+--anchored=<text>::
+	Generate a diff using the "anchored diff" algorithm.
++
+This option may be specified more than once.
++
+If a line exists in both the source and destination, exists only once,
+and starts with this text, this algorithm attempts to prevent it from
+appearing as a deletion or addition in the output. It uses the "patience
+diff" algorithm internally.
+
+--diff-algorithm={patience|minimal|histogram|myers}::
+	Choose a diff algorithm. The variants are as follows:
++
+--
+`default`, `myers`;;
+	The basic greedy diff algorithm. Currently, this is the default.
+`minimal`;;
+	Spend extra time to make sure the smallest possible diff is
+	produced.
+`patience`;;
+	Use "patience diff" algorithm when generating patches.
+`histogram`;;
+	This algorithm extends the patience algorithm to "support
+	low-occurrence common elements".
+--
++
+For instance, if you configured the `diff.algorithm` variable to a
+non-default value and want to use the default one, then you
+have to use `--diff-algorithm=default` option.
+
+--stat[=<width>[,<name-width>[,<count>]]]::
+	Generate a diffstat. By default, as much space as necessary
+	will be used for the filename part, and the rest for the graph
+	part. Maximum width defaults to terminal width, or 80 columns
+	if not connected to a terminal, and can be overridden by
+	`<width>`. The width of the filename part can be limited by
+	giving another width `<name-width>` after a comma. The width
+	of the graph part can be limited by using
+	`--stat-graph-width=<width>` (affects all commands generating
+	a stat graph) or by setting `diff.statGraphWidth=<width>`
+	(does not affect `git format-patch`).
+	By giving a third parameter `<count>`, you can limit the
+	output to the first `<count>` lines, followed by `...` if
+	there are more.
++
+These parameters can also be set individually with `--stat-width=<width>`,
+`--stat-name-width=<name-width>` and `--stat-count=<count>`.
+
+--compact-summary::
+	Output a condensed summary of extended header information such
+	as file creations or deletions ("new" or "gone", optionally "+l"
+	if it's a symlink) and mode changes ("+x" or "-x" for adding
+	or removing executable bit respectively) in diffstat. The
+	information is put between the filename part and the graph
+	part. Implies `--stat`.
+
+--numstat::
+	Similar to `--stat`, but shows number of added and
+	deleted lines in decimal notation and pathname without
+	abbreviation, to make it more machine friendly.  For
+	binary files, outputs two `-` instead of saying
+	`0 0`.
+
+--shortstat::
+	Output only the last line of the `--stat` format containing total
+	number of modified files, as well as number of added and deleted
+	lines.
+
+-X[<param1,param2,...>]::
+--dirstat[=<param1,param2,...>]::
+	Output the distribution of relative amount of changes for each
+	sub-directory. The behavior of `--dirstat` can be customized by
+	passing it a comma separated list of parameters.
+	The defaults are controlled by the `diff.dirstat` configuration
+	variable (see linkgit:git-config[1]).
+	The following parameters are available:
++
+--
+`changes`;;
+	Compute the dirstat numbers by counting the lines that have been
+	removed from the source, or added to the destination. This ignores
+	the amount of pure code movements within a file.  In other words,
+	rearranging lines in a file is not counted as much as other changes.
+	This is the default behavior when no parameter is given.
+`lines`;;
+	Compute the dirstat numbers by doing the regular line-based diff
+	analysis, and summing the removed/added line counts. (For binary
+	files, count 64-byte chunks instead, since binary files have no
+	natural concept of lines). This is a more expensive `--dirstat`
+	behavior than the `changes` behavior, but it does count rearranged
+	lines within a file as much as other changes. The resulting output
+	is consistent with what you get from the other `--*stat` options.
+`files`;;
+	Compute the dirstat numbers by counting the number of files changed.
+	Each changed file counts equally in the dirstat analysis. This is
+	the computationally cheapest `--dirstat` behavior, since it does
+	not have to look at the file contents at all.
+`cumulative`;;
+	Count changes in a child directory for the parent directory as well.
+	Note that when using `cumulative`, the sum of the percentages
+	reported may exceed 100%. The default (non-cumulative) behavior can
+	be specified with the `noncumulative` parameter.
+<limit>;;
+	An integer parameter specifies a cut-off percent (3% by default).
+	Directories contributing less than this percentage of the changes
+	are not shown in the output.
+--
++
+Example: The following will count changed files, while ignoring
+directories with less than 10% of the total amount of changed files,
+and accumulating child directory counts in the parent directories:
+`--dirstat=files,10,cumulative`.
+
+--cumulative::
+	Synonym for --dirstat=cumulative
+
+--dirstat-by-file[=<param1,param2>...]::
+	Synonym for --dirstat=files,param1,param2...
+
+--summary::
+	Output a condensed summary of extended header information
+	such as creations, renames and mode changes.
+
+ifndef::git-format-patch[]
+--patch-with-stat::
+	Synonym for `-p --stat`.
+endif::git-format-patch[]
+
+ifndef::git-format-patch[]
+
+-z::
+ifdef::git-log[]
+	Separate the commits with NULs instead of with new newlines.
++
+Also, when `--raw` or `--numstat` has been given, do not munge
+pathnames and use NULs as output field terminators.
+endif::git-log[]
+ifndef::git-log[]
+	When `--raw`, `--numstat`, `--name-only` or `--name-status` has been
+	given, do not munge pathnames and use NULs as output field terminators.
+endif::git-log[]
++
+Without this option, pathnames with "unusual" characters are quoted as
+explained for the configuration variable `core.quotePath` (see
+linkgit:git-config[1]).
+
+--name-only::
+	Show only names of changed files.
+
+--name-status::
+	Show only names and status of changed files. See the description
+	of the `--diff-filter` option on what the status letters mean.
+
+--submodule[=<format>]::
+	Specify how differences in submodules are shown.  When specifying
+	`--submodule=short` the 'short' format is used.  This format just
+	shows the names of the commits at the beginning and end of the range.
+	When `--submodule` or `--submodule=log` is specified, the 'log'
+	format is used.  This format lists the commits in the range like
+	linkgit:git-submodule[1] `summary` does.  When `--submodule=diff`
+	is specified, the 'diff' format is used.  This format shows an
+	inline diff of the changes in the submodule contents between the
+	commit range.  Defaults to `diff.submodule` or the 'short' format
+	if the config option is unset.
+
+--color[=<when>]::
+	Show colored diff.
+	`--color` (i.e. without '=<when>') is the same as `--color=always`.
+	'<when>' can be one of `always`, `never`, or `auto`.
+ifdef::git-diff[]
+	It can be changed by the `color.ui` and `color.diff`
+	configuration settings.
+endif::git-diff[]
+
+--no-color::
+	Turn off colored diff.
+ifdef::git-diff[]
+	This can be used to override configuration settings.
+endif::git-diff[]
+	It is the same as `--color=never`.
+
+--color-moved[=<mode>]::
+	Moved lines of code are colored differently.
+ifdef::git-diff[]
+	It can be changed by the `diff.colorMoved` configuration setting.
+endif::git-diff[]
+	The <mode> defaults to 'no' if the option is not given
+	and to 'zebra' if the option with no mode is given.
+	The mode must be one of:
++
+--
+no::
+	Moved lines are not highlighted.
+default::
+	Is a synonym for `zebra`. This may change to a more sensible mode
+	in the future.
+plain::
+	Any line that is added in one location and was removed
+	in another location will be colored with 'color.diff.newMoved'.
+	Similarly 'color.diff.oldMoved' will be used for removed lines
+	that are added somewhere else in the diff. This mode picks up any
+	moved line, but it is not very useful in a review to determine
+	if a block of code was moved without permutation.
+blocks::
+	Blocks of moved text of at least 20 alphanumeric characters
+	are detected greedily. The detected blocks are
+	painted using either the 'color.diff.{old,new}Moved' color.
+	Adjacent blocks cannot be told apart.
+zebra::
+	Blocks of moved text are detected as in 'blocks' mode. The blocks
+	are painted using either the 'color.diff.{old,new}Moved' color or
+	'color.diff.{old,new}MovedAlternative'. The change between
+	the two colors indicates that a new block was detected.
+dimmed-zebra::
+	Similar to 'zebra', but additional dimming of uninteresting parts
+	of moved code is performed. The bordering lines of two adjacent
+	blocks are considered interesting, the rest is uninteresting.
+	`dimmed_zebra` is a deprecated synonym.
+--
+
+--no-color-moved::
+	Turn off move detection. This can be used to override configuration
+	settings. It is the same as `--color-moved=no`.
+
+--color-moved-ws=<modes>::
+	This configures how whitespace is ignored when performing the
+	move detection for `--color-moved`.
+ifdef::git-diff[]
+	It can be set by the `diff.colorMovedWS` configuration setting.
+endif::git-diff[]
+	These modes can be given as a comma separated list:
++
+--
+no::
+	Do not ignore whitespace when performing move detection.
+ignore-space-at-eol::
+	Ignore changes in whitespace at EOL.
+ignore-space-change::
+	Ignore changes in amount of whitespace.  This ignores whitespace
+	at line end, and considers all other sequences of one or
+	more whitespace characters to be equivalent.
+ignore-all-space::
+	Ignore whitespace when comparing lines. This ignores differences
+	even if one line has whitespace where the other line has none.
+allow-indentation-change::
+	Initially ignore any whitespace in the move detection, then
+	group the moved code blocks only into a block if the change in
+	whitespace is the same per line. This is incompatible with the
+	other modes.
+--
+
+--no-color-moved-ws::
+	Do not ignore whitespace when performing move detection. This can be
+	used to override configuration settings. It is the same as
+	`--color-moved-ws=no`.
+
+--word-diff[=<mode>]::
+	Show a word diff, using the <mode> to delimit changed words.
+	By default, words are delimited by whitespace; see
+	`--word-diff-regex` below.  The <mode> defaults to 'plain', and
+	must be one of:
++
+--
+color::
+	Highlight changed words using only colors.  Implies `--color`.
+plain::
+	Show words as `[-removed-]` and `{+added+}`.  Makes no
+	attempts to escape the delimiters if they appear in the input,
+	so the output may be ambiguous.
+porcelain::
+	Use a special line-based format intended for script
+	consumption.  Added/removed/unchanged runs are printed in the
+	usual unified diff format, starting with a `+`/`-`/` `
+	character at the beginning of the line and extending to the
+	end of the line.  Newlines in the input are represented by a
+	tilde `~` on a line of its own.
+none::
+	Disable word diff again.
+--
++
+Note that despite the name of the first mode, color is used to
+highlight the changed parts in all modes if enabled.
+
+--word-diff-regex=<regex>::
+	Use <regex> to decide what a word is, instead of considering
+	runs of non-whitespace to be a word.  Also implies
+	`--word-diff` unless it was already enabled.
++
+Every non-overlapping match of the
+<regex> is considered a word.  Anything between these matches is
+considered whitespace and ignored(!) for the purposes of finding
+differences.  You may want to append `|[^[:space:]]` to your regular
+expression to make sure that it matches all non-whitespace characters.
+A match that contains a newline is silently truncated(!) at the
+newline.
++
+For example, `--word-diff-regex=.` will treat each character as a word
+and, correspondingly, show differences character by character.
++
+The regex can also be set via a diff driver or configuration option, see
+linkgit:gitattributes[5] or linkgit:git-config[1].  Giving it explicitly
+overrides any diff driver or configuration setting.  Diff drivers
+override configuration settings.
+
+--color-words[=<regex>]::
+	Equivalent to `--word-diff=color` plus (if a regex was
+	specified) `--word-diff-regex=<regex>`.
+endif::git-format-patch[]
+
+--no-renames::
+	Turn off rename detection, even when the configuration
+	file gives the default to do so.
+
+--[no-]rename-empty::
+	Whether to use empty blobs as rename source.
+
+ifndef::git-format-patch[]
+--check::
+	Warn if changes introduce conflict markers or whitespace errors.
+	What are considered whitespace errors is controlled by `core.whitespace`
+	configuration.  By default, trailing whitespaces (including
+	lines that consist solely of whitespaces) and a space character
+	that is immediately followed by a tab character inside the
+	initial indent of the line are considered whitespace errors.
+	Exits with non-zero status if problems are found. Not compatible
+	with --exit-code.
+
+--ws-error-highlight=<kind>::
+	Highlight whitespace errors in the `context`, `old` or `new`
+	lines of the diff.  Multiple values are separated by comma,
+	`none` resets previous values, `default` reset the list to
+	`new` and `all` is a shorthand for `old,new,context`.  When
+	this option is not given, and the configuration variable
+	`diff.wsErrorHighlight` is not set, only whitespace errors in
+	`new` lines are highlighted. The whitespace errors are colored
+	with `color.diff.whitespace`.
+
+endif::git-format-patch[]
+
+--full-index::
+	Instead of the first handful of characters, show the full
+	pre- and post-image blob object names on the "index"
+	line when generating patch format output.
+
+--binary::
+	In addition to `--full-index`, output a binary diff that
+	can be applied with `git-apply`. Implies `--patch`.
+
+--abbrev[=<n>]::
+	Instead of showing the full 40-byte hexadecimal object
+	name in diff-raw format output and diff-tree header
+	lines, show only a partial prefix.  This is
+	independent of the `--full-index` option above, which controls
+	the diff-patch output format.  Non default number of
+	digits can be specified with `--abbrev=<n>`.
+
+-B[<n>][/<m>]::
+--break-rewrites[=[<n>][/<m>]]::
+	Break complete rewrite changes into pairs of delete and
+	create. This serves two purposes:
++
+It affects the way a change that amounts to a total rewrite of a file
+not as a series of deletion and insertion mixed together with a very
+few lines that happen to match textually as the context, but as a
+single deletion of everything old followed by a single insertion of
+everything new, and the number `m` controls this aspect of the -B
+option (defaults to 60%). `-B/70%` specifies that less than 30% of the
+original should remain in the result for Git to consider it a total
+rewrite (i.e. otherwise the resulting patch will be a series of
+deletion and insertion mixed together with context lines).
++
+When used with -M, a totally-rewritten file is also considered as the
+source of a rename (usually -M only considers a file that disappeared
+as the source of a rename), and the number `n` controls this aspect of
+the -B option (defaults to 50%). `-B20%` specifies that a change with
+addition and deletion compared to 20% or more of the file's size are
+eligible for being picked up as a possible source of a rename to
+another file.
+
+-M[<n>]::
+--find-renames[=<n>]::
+ifndef::git-log[]
+	Detect renames.
+endif::git-log[]
+ifdef::git-log[]
+	If generating diffs, detect and report renames for each commit.
+	For following files across renames while traversing history, see
+	`--follow`.
+endif::git-log[]
+	If `n` is specified, it is a threshold on the similarity
+	index (i.e. amount of addition/deletions compared to the
+	file's size). For example, `-M90%` means Git should consider a
+	delete/add pair to be a rename if more than 90% of the file
+	hasn't changed.  Without a `%` sign, the number is to be read as
+	a fraction, with a decimal point before it.  I.e., `-M5` becomes
+	0.5, and is thus the same as `-M50%`.  Similarly, `-M05` is
+	the same as `-M5%`.  To limit detection to exact renames, use
+	`-M100%`.  The default similarity index is 50%.
+
+-C[<n>]::
+--find-copies[=<n>]::
+	Detect copies as well as renames.  See also `--find-copies-harder`.
+	If `n` is specified, it has the same meaning as for `-M<n>`.
+
+--find-copies-harder::
+	For performance reasons, by default, `-C` option finds copies only
+	if the original file of the copy was modified in the same
+	changeset.  This flag makes the command
+	inspect unmodified files as candidates for the source of
+	copy.  This is a very expensive operation for large
+	projects, so use it with caution.  Giving more than one
+	`-C` option has the same effect.
+
+-D::
+--irreversible-delete::
+	Omit the preimage for deletes, i.e. print only the header but not
+	the diff between the preimage and `/dev/null`. The resulting patch
+	is not meant to be applied with `patch` or `git apply`; this is
+	solely for people who want to just concentrate on reviewing the
+	text after the change. In addition, the output obviously lacks
+	enough information to apply such a patch in reverse, even manually,
+	hence the name of the option.
++
+When used together with `-B`, omit also the preimage in the deletion part
+of a delete/create pair.
+
+-l<num>::
+	The `-M` and `-C` options require O(n^2) processing time where n
+	is the number of potential rename/copy targets.  This
+	option prevents rename/copy detection from running if
+	the number of rename/copy targets exceeds the specified
+	number.
+
+ifndef::git-format-patch[]
+--diff-filter=[(A|C|D|M|R|T|U|X|B)...[*]]::
+	Select only files that are Added (`A`), Copied (`C`),
+	Deleted (`D`), Modified (`M`), Renamed (`R`), have their
+	type (i.e. regular file, symlink, submodule, ...) changed (`T`),
+	are Unmerged (`U`), are
+	Unknown (`X`), or have had their pairing Broken (`B`).
+	Any combination of the filter characters (including none) can be used.
+	When `*` (All-or-none) is added to the combination, all
+	paths are selected if there is any file that matches
+	other criteria in the comparison; if there is no file
+	that matches other criteria, nothing is selected.
++
+Also, these upper-case letters can be downcased to exclude.  E.g.
+`--diff-filter=ad` excludes added and deleted paths.
++
+Note that not all diffs can feature all types. For instance, diffs
+from the index to the working tree can never have Added entries
+(because the set of paths included in the diff is limited by what is in
+the index).  Similarly, copied and renamed entries cannot appear if
+detection for those types is disabled.
+
+-S<string>::
+	Look for differences that change the number of occurrences of
+	the specified string (i.e. addition/deletion) in a file.
+	Intended for the scripter's use.
++
+It is useful when you're looking for an exact block of code (like a
+struct), and want to know the history of that block since it first
+came into being: use the feature iteratively to feed the interesting
+block in the preimage back into `-S`, and keep going until you get the
+very first version of the block.
++
+Binary files are searched as well.
+
+-G<regex>::
+	Look for differences whose patch text contains added/removed
+	lines that match <regex>.
++
+To illustrate the difference between `-S<regex> --pickaxe-regex` and
+`-G<regex>`, consider a commit with the following diff in the same
+file:
++
+----
++    return !regexec(regexp, two->ptr, 1, &regmatch, 0);
+...
+-    hit = !regexec(regexp, mf2.ptr, 1, &regmatch, 0);
+----
++
+While `git log -G"regexec\(regexp"` will show this commit, `git log
+-S"regexec\(regexp" --pickaxe-regex` will not (because the number of
+occurrences of that string did not change).
++
+Unless `--text` is supplied patches of binary files without a textconv
+filter will be ignored.
++
+See the 'pickaxe' entry in linkgit:gitdiffcore[7] for more
+information.
+
+--find-object=<object-id>::
+	Look for differences that change the number of occurrences of
+	the specified object. Similar to `-S`, just the argument is different
+	in that it doesn't search for a specific string but for a specific
+	object id.
++
+The object can be a blob or a submodule commit. It implies the `-t` option in
+`git-log` to also find trees.
+
+--pickaxe-all::
+	When `-S` or `-G` finds a change, show all the changes in that
+	changeset, not just the files that contain the change
+	in <string>.
+
+--pickaxe-regex::
+	Treat the <string> given to `-S` as an extended POSIX regular
+	expression to match.
+
+endif::git-format-patch[]
+
+-O<orderfile>::
+	Control the order in which files appear in the output.
+	This overrides the `diff.orderFile` configuration variable
+	(see linkgit:git-config[1]).  To cancel `diff.orderFile`,
+	use `-O/dev/null`.
++
+The output order is determined by the order of glob patterns in
+<orderfile>.
+All files with pathnames that match the first pattern are output
+first, all files with pathnames that match the second pattern (but not
+the first) are output next, and so on.
+All files with pathnames that do not match any pattern are output
+last, as if there was an implicit match-all pattern at the end of the
+file.
+If multiple pathnames have the same rank (they match the same pattern
+but no earlier patterns), their output order relative to each other is
+the normal order.
++
+<orderfile> is parsed as follows:
++
+--
+ - Blank lines are ignored, so they can be used as separators for
+   readability.
+
+ - Lines starting with a hash ("`#`") are ignored, so they can be used
+   for comments.  Add a backslash ("`\`") to the beginning of the
+   pattern if it starts with a hash.
+
+ - Each other line contains a single pattern.
+--
++
+Patterns have the same syntax and semantics as patterns used for
+fnmatch(3) without the FNM_PATHNAME flag, except a pathname also
+matches a pattern if removing any number of the final pathname
+components matches the pattern.  For example, the pattern "`foo*bar`"
+matches "`fooasdfbar`" and "`foo/bar/baz/asdf`" but not "`foobarx`".
+
+ifndef::git-format-patch[]
+-R::
+	Swap two inputs; that is, show differences from index or
+	on-disk file to tree contents.
+
+--relative[=<path>]::
+	When run from a subdirectory of the project, it can be
+	told to exclude changes outside the directory and show
+	pathnames relative to it with this option.  When you are
+	not in a subdirectory (e.g. in a bare repository), you
+	can name which subdirectory to make the output relative
+	to by giving a <path> as an argument.
+endif::git-format-patch[]
+
+-a::
+--text::
+	Treat all files as text.
+
+--ignore-cr-at-eol::
+	Ignore carriage-return at the end of line when doing a comparison.
+
+--ignore-space-at-eol::
+	Ignore changes in whitespace at EOL.
+
+-b::
+--ignore-space-change::
+	Ignore changes in amount of whitespace.  This ignores whitespace
+	at line end, and considers all other sequences of one or
+	more whitespace characters to be equivalent.
+
+-w::
+--ignore-all-space::
+	Ignore whitespace when comparing lines.  This ignores
+	differences even if one line has whitespace where the other
+	line has none.
+
+--ignore-blank-lines::
+	Ignore changes whose lines are all blank.
+
+--inter-hunk-context=<lines>::
+	Show the context between diff hunks, up to the specified number
+	of lines, thereby fusing hunks that are close to each other.
+	Defaults to `diff.interHunkContext` or 0 if the config option
+	is unset.
+
+-W::
+--function-context::
+	Show whole surrounding functions of changes.
+
+ifndef::git-format-patch[]
+ifndef::git-log[]
+--exit-code::
+	Make the program exit with codes similar to diff(1).
+	That is, it exits with 1 if there were differences and
+	0 means no differences.
+
+--quiet::
+	Disable all output of the program. Implies `--exit-code`.
+endif::git-log[]
+endif::git-format-patch[]
+
+--ext-diff::
+	Allow an external diff helper to be executed. If you set an
+	external diff driver with linkgit:gitattributes[5], you need
+	to use this option with linkgit:git-log[1] and friends.
+
+--no-ext-diff::
+	Disallow external diff drivers.
+
+--textconv::
+--no-textconv::
+	Allow (or disallow) external text conversion filters to be run
+	when comparing binary files. See linkgit:gitattributes[5] for
+	details. Because textconv filters are typically a one-way
+	conversion, the resulting diff is suitable for human
+	consumption, but cannot be applied. For this reason, textconv
+	filters are enabled by default only for linkgit:git-diff[1] and
+	linkgit:git-log[1], but not for linkgit:git-format-patch[1] or
+	diff plumbing commands.
+
+--ignore-submodules[=<when>]::
+	Ignore changes to submodules in the diff generation. <when> can be
+	either "none", "untracked", "dirty" or "all", which is the default.
+	Using "none" will consider the submodule modified when it either contains
+	untracked or modified files or its HEAD differs from the commit recorded
+	in the superproject and can be used to override any settings of the
+	'ignore' option in linkgit:git-config[1] or linkgit:gitmodules[5]. When
+	"untracked" is used submodules are not considered dirty when they only
+	contain untracked content (but they are still scanned for modified
+	content). Using "dirty" ignores all changes to the work tree of submodules,
+	only changes to the commits stored in the superproject are shown (this was
+	the behavior until 1.7.0). Using "all" hides all changes to submodules.
+
+--src-prefix=<prefix>::
+	Show the given source prefix instead of "a/".
+
+--dst-prefix=<prefix>::
+	Show the given destination prefix instead of "b/".
+
+--no-prefix::
+	Do not show any source or destination prefix.
+
+--line-prefix=<prefix>::
+	Prepend an additional prefix to every line of output.
+
+--ita-invisible-in-index::
+	By default entries added by "git add -N" appear as an existing
+	empty file in "git diff" and a new file in "git diff --cached".
+	This option makes the entry appear as a new file in "git diff"
+	and non-existent in "git diff --cached". This option could be
+	reverted with `--ita-visible-in-index`. Both options are
+	experimental and could be removed in future.
+
+For more detailed explanation on these common options, see also
+linkgit:gitdiffcore[7].