git-diff-pairs(1) ================= NAME ---- git-diff-pairs - Compare the content and mode of provided blob pairs SYNOPSIS -------- [synopsis] git diff-pairs -z [] DESCRIPTION ----------- Show changes for file pairs provided on stdin. Input for this command must be in the NUL-terminated raw output format as generated by commands such as `git diff-tree -z -r --raw`. By default, the outputted diffs are computed and shown in the patch format when stdin closes. A single NUL byte may be written to stdin between raw input lines to compute file pair diffs up to that point instead of waiting for stdin to close. A NUL byte is also written to the output to delimit between these batches of diffs. Usage of this command enables the traditional diff pipeline to be broken up into separate stages where `diff-pairs` acts as the output phase. Other commands, such as `diff-tree`, may serve as a frontend to compute the raw diff format used as input. Instead of computing diffs via `git diff-tree -p -M` in one step, `diff-tree` can compute the file pairs and rename information without the blob diffs. This output can be fed to `diff-pairs` to generate the underlying blob diffs as done in the following example: ----------------------------- git diff-tree -z -r -M $a $b | git diff-pairs -z ----------------------------- Computing the tree diff upfront with rename information allows patch output from `diff-pairs` to be progressively computed over the course of potentially multiple invocations. Pathspecs are not currently supported by `diff-pairs`. Pathspec limiting should be performed by the upstream command generating the raw diffs used as input. Tree objects are not currently supported as input and are rejected. Abbreviated object IDs in the `diff-pairs` input are not supported. Outputted object IDs can be abbreviated using the `--abbrev` option. OPTIONS ------- include::diff-options.adoc[] include::diff-generate-patch.adoc[] GIT --- Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite