Skip to content

Commit e3df75c

Browse files
committed
Suggest using git range-diff
I have found it to be very helpful when rebasing.
1 parent 9a676ee commit e3df75c

File tree

1 file changed

+62
-0
lines changed

1 file changed

+62
-0
lines changed

src/git.md

+62
Original file line numberDiff line numberDiff line change
@@ -217,6 +217,7 @@ there are no glaring errors.
217217
Once you're all done fixing the conflicts, you need to stage the files that had
218218
conflicts in them via `git add`. Afterwards, run `git rebase --continue` to let
219219
Git know that you've resolved the conflicts and it should finish the rebase.
220+
220221
Once the rebase has succeeded, you'll want to update the associated branch on
221222
your fork with `git push --force-with-lease`.
222223

@@ -263,6 +264,67 @@ You also may want to squash just the last few commits together, possibly
263264
because they only represent "fixups" and not real changes. For example,
264265
`git rebase --interactive HEAD~2` will allow you to edit the two commits only.
265266

267+
### `git range-diff`
268+
269+
After completing a complicated rebase, or even a relatively simple one, you may
270+
want to review the changes between your old branch and your new one. You can do
271+
that with the `git range-diff master @{upstream} HEAD` command, which can be
272+
very helpful when you had a complicated rebase and you want to make sure you
273+
changed the right things.
274+
275+
The first argument to `range-diff`, `master` in this case, is the base revision
276+
that you're comparing your old and new branch against. The second argument is
277+
the old version of your branch; in this case, `@upstream` means the version that
278+
you've pushed to GitHub, which is the same as what people will see in your pull
279+
request. Finally, the third argument to `range-diff` is the *new* version of
280+
your branch; in this case, it is `HEAD`, which is the commit that is currently
281+
checked-out in your local repo.
282+
283+
Note that you can also use the equivalent, abbreviated form `git range-diff
284+
master @{u} HEAD`.
285+
286+
Unlike in regular Git diffs, you'll see a `-` or `+` next to another `-` or `+`
287+
in the range-diff output. The marker on the left indicates a change between the
288+
old branch and the new branch, and the marker on the right indicates a change
289+
you've committed. So, you can think of a range-diff as a "diff of diffs" since
290+
it shows you the differences between your old diff and your new diff.
291+
292+
Here's an example of `git range-diff` output (taken from [Git's
293+
docs][range-diff-example-docs]):
294+
295+
```
296+
-: ------- > 1: 0ddba11 Prepare for the inevitable!
297+
1: c0debee = 2: cab005e Add a helpful message at the start
298+
2: f00dbal ! 3: decafe1 Describe a bug
299+
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
300+
Author: A U Thor <author@example.com>
301+
302+
-TODO: Describe a bug
303+
+Describe a bug
304+
@@ -324,5 +324,6
305+
This is expected.
306+
307+
-+What is unexpected is that it will also crash.
308+
++Unexpectedly, it also crashes. This is a bug, and the jury is
309+
++still out there how to fix it best. See ticket #314 for details.
310+
311+
Contact
312+
3: bedead < -: ------- TO-UNDO
313+
```
314+
315+
(Note that `git range-diff` output in your terminal will probably be easier to
316+
read than in this example because it will have colors.)
317+
318+
Another feature of `git range-diff` is that, unlike `git diff`, it will also
319+
diff commit messages. This feature can be useful when amending several commit
320+
messages so you can make sure you changed the right parts.
321+
322+
`git range-diff` is a very useful command, but note that it can take some time
323+
to get used to its output format. You may also find Git's documentation on the
324+
command useful, especially their ["Examples" section][range-diff-example-docs].
325+
326+
[range-diff-example-docs]: https://git-scm.com/docs/git-range-diff#_examples
327+
266328
## No-Merge Policy
267329

268330
The rust-lang/rust repo uses what is known as a "rebase workflow." This means

0 commit comments

Comments
 (0)