is it possible to `git status` only modified files?

Question

Is it possible to have git status only show the modified files due, in my case, to having too many staged files?

How do you have a scroll limit? By default, `git status` will invoke the pager. — Lily Ballard, Apr 04 '12 at 20:16
Sorry scrollback limit is set to 512 lines on my machine. I guess i could change it; but would prefer a one line command to view just modified files in the status because GD/imagecache will generate even more files eventually. — chrisjlee, Apr 04 '12 at 20:20
Right... my point is the pager doesn't use your terminal's scrollback. — Lily Ballard, Apr 04 '12 at 20:26
Anything wrong with just grepping for whatever you find interesting? Use `--short` or `--porcelain` to get one-line versions of the status. — torek, Apr 04 '12 at 20:26
One more point, based on the suggestion to use `git ls-files -m`: which modification(s) do you care about, staged, unstaged, or both? — torek, Apr 04 '12 at 20:36

Lily Ballard · Accepted Answer · 2019-01-19T22:10:53.333

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You can't do this with git status, but you could use git ls-files -m to show all modified files.

edited Jan 19 '19 at 22:10

answered Apr 04 '12 at 20:26

Lily Ballard

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Just so others know, this will only show files which have been modified without yet being staged. – Gerry Apr 15 '15 at 10:19
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While this is the accepted answer, it has inaccurate information. You can "'git status' only modified files" with `git status | grep modified` just as user23186 indicates in their answer. – K. Alan Bates Jan 18 '16 at 17:00
@K.AlanBates My answer is correct. Your command is not running `git status` only on modified files, it's running `git status` on everything and then using a separate tool to throw away the unwanted info. Your answer also won't work if the user has the git config setting to always use short mode. A more accurate suggestion would have been `git status -s | grep '^.M'`, but even that is just a poor way of accomplishing the same thing as `git ls-files -m`. – Lily Ballard Jan 18 '16 at 19:02
To be more specific, the mention of 'inaccurate information' is only to your first clause declaring that "you can't do this with `git status`." You totally can have git status return only modified files with grep. Of course your suggestion to use `ls-files -m` will function just fine; its just not as expressive, in my opinion. – K. Alan Bates Jan 18 '16 at 19:53
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For me, `git ls-files -m` is not showing anything but `git status | grep modified` is working. – Sandeepan Nath May 05 '16 at 11:41
@KevinBallard Can you give all option of `git ls-files`? – alhelal Dec 05 '17 at 05:28
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As others have pointed out, this only shows unstaged files. If you want to show both unstaged AND staged files, this is the best answer I've seen: https://stackoverflow.com/a/39994894/452587 – thdoan Jan 18 '19 at 21:15
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@thdoan There are a number of options for showing staged files, though this particular question seems to want to explicitly exclude staged files. `git diff --name-only --diff-filter=M HEAD` would show just modified files for both staged and unstaged, though you should check the docs on `--diff-filter` to see what other filter types you might want to add. – Lily Ballard Jan 19 '19 at 22:15
For better or worse, this solution will only show modified files in your current directory or its subdirectories. In other words, if you're in a subdirectory, it will not show you the modified files in your parent directory. IMO this is a drawback but I guess it's fine as long as you're aware of this fact. I suspect this is the explanation for Sandeepan Nath's comment and its numerous upvotes. I am surprised this hasn't been pointed out in 8 years. – ibonyun Sep 16 '20 at 23:47

score 70 · Answer 2 · edited Nov 27 '14 at 10:45

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It looks like git status -uno will show you only files that git is tracking, without showing anything else in the directory. Not exactly what you asked for, but perhaps accomplishes the same thing (getting a readable-length list of files that git tracks).

edited Nov 27 '14 at 10:45

Kamal Reddy

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answered Apr 04 '12 at 20:28

TomNysetvold

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`git status -u no` does not show (1) tracked files which are modified, nor (2) tracked files which are staged. I've verified this with git versions 1.8.5.2 and 1.9.4. – mxxk Sep 12 '14 at 20:59
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@TomNysetvold, you may actually mean `git status -uno` (http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7008546/command-git-status-u-no-filters-tracked-files-also) – mxxk Sep 12 '14 at 21:03

score 36 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 04 '14 at 12:48

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For modified files:

git status | grep modified:

answered Dec 04 '14 at 12:48

Lance

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So useful I've created an alias for this: `git config --global alias.modified '!git status | grep modified:'` – Richard Parnaby-King Jan 12 '16 at 11:23

score 34 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 20 '12 at 18:15

34

git status -s | awk '{if ($1 == "M") print $2}'

answered Nov 20 '12 at 18:15

Carl Bäckström

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Or `awk '$1 == "M" { print $2 }'` – Calpau Sep 03 '15 at 15:35

score 21 · Answer 5 · answered Dec 29 '16 at 15:41

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git diff --name-only --diff-filter=M

answered Dec 29 '16 at 15:41

ZeroGraviti

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I recommend those filters: `git diff --cached --name-only --diff-filter=ACMR` which does Added, Copied, Modified and Renamed files. – qwertzguy Jan 30 '18 at 01:17

score 10 · Answer 6 · answered Feb 21 '16 at 13:37

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git diff --name-only works too.

answered Feb 21 '16 at 13:37

mpelzsherman

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score 6 · Answer 7 · answered Jun 19 '19 at 19:56

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You can use

$ git status -uno

to list only modified files.

answered Jun 19 '19 at 19:56

Karthik

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score 5 · Answer 8 · answered Dec 09 '18 at 06:42

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I was looking for the same info and found following gives modified files:

git status -uno

answered Dec 09 '18 at 06:42

Tectrendz

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`git status -uno --porcelain` adds nice output for parsing script – pprzemek Apr 01 '19 at 13:29

score 3 · Answer 9 · answered Nov 09 '17 at 23:33

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To list the modified files use:

git ls-files -m

If you want just the basename (no path) then you can pipe each result to the basename command using xargs, line by line:

git ls-files -m | xargs -L 1 basename

answered Nov 09 '17 at 23:33

briggySmalls

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score 3 · Answer 10 · answered Jul 01 '19 at 15:47

The problem is i have too many staged files that i don't want to commit or gitignore at the moment and i can't scroll up.

While this may not directly answer the question of listing only modified files, it may help limit the number of files that are listed.

You can pass a path to git status to limit the output to a specific folder in the repo.

For example:

git status app
git status spec
git status src/components

SebMa · Answer 11 · 2021-10-17T21:23:46.407

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I use this command :

$ git status -sb -uno | grep -v "^\sD\s"

And the output looks like this :

## master...origin/master
 M GNUmakefile
 M include/mp4v2/project.h

edited Oct 17 '21 at 21:23

answered May 01 '20 at 23:36

SebMa

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But that prints the deleted ones as well. – kritzel_sw Oct 13 '21 at 14:08
I add `\M` ```git status -uno -sb | grep M\``` – Elminson De Oleo Baez Oct 15 '21 at 04:02
@kritzel_sw I just modified my command to not display the deleted files. – SebMa Oct 17 '21 at 21:26

Carson · Answer 12 · 2022-02-21T03:29:23.783

Update

open the .gitconfig

[user]
     name = ...
     email = ...
[alias]
    #  add below code
    mySt = "!f() {\
        inputType=${1:-" "};\
        git status -s | grep "\\ $inputType" |\
        sed -e 's/ / /'   ;\
    }; f"

explain: https://stackoverflow.com/a/62772985/9935654

usage

git mySt M : show modified:

git mySt M *.md : Show all *.md, which was modified.

git mySt D : deleted:

git mySt : same as the git status -s

OS: windows

The following command will display all lines containing "modified:", "renamed:" or "new file:"

git status | findstr "modified: renamed: new file:"

If you want to specified file type: (for example *.py *.ini)

git status *.py *.ini | findstr "modified: renamed: new file:"

If you think it’s too much trouble typing so much:

create a batch file (for example: st.bat)

write contents as following:

@echo off
:: st.bat  (this line doesn't necessarily. ( just let you know the scripts name.))
git status %~1 | findstr "modified: renamed: new file:"

add environment path which contains your batch file. (st.bat)
usage
```
st.bat "*.py *.ini"
```
(note: if type > 1 then must add the semicolon)

OS: LINUX

as @Lance says you can try

git status | grep modified:

score 1 · Answer 13 · answered Feb 20 '22 at 22:25

One alternative is to have the results on a single line via -s which can limit what is being shown.

git status -s

Shown under windows Terminal with Powerline/Posh git.

This command is so handy in that I added it as an alias used as git stati

[alias]
   stati = !git status -s

score 0 · Answer 14 · edited Apr 05 '12 at 18:11

0

I use git cola. Its a simple and elegant UI client that will show you the modified files and provide you with a diff like shot of the changes you made.

git cola provides you with a GUI where you can visualize which files you modified, which you staged, and even those you don't track. Your question was to use git status only I believe, but I thought git cola can help when that and other things as well. Check this web page from more info: git-cola.github.com/screenshots.html

edited Apr 05 '12 at 18:11

chrisjlee

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answered Apr 05 '12 at 01:30

n_x_l

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Could you provide how that relates to my answer given i'm not familiar with this git cola. e.g. screenshots, or more detail? – chrisjlee Apr 05 '12 at 03:10
it that why is was downvoted? :) Anyway, git cola provides you with a GUI where you can visualize which files you modified, which you staged, and even those you don't track. Your question was to use git status only I believe, but I thought git cola can help when that and other things as well. Check this web page from more info: http://git-cola.github.com/screenshots.html – n_x_l Apr 05 '12 at 15:07
How to change cola's interface language? – Ziyuan Oct 13 '14 at 14:21

score 0 · Answer 15 · edited Oct 22 '20 at 01:08

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If you want to list the modified files, you could do this:

git log -n1 --oneline --name-status | grep '^M'

edited Oct 22 '20 at 01:08

Pang

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answered Nov 29 '16 at 22:44

David H.

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score 0 · Answer 16 · edited Jul 27 '18 at 04:25

0

To list all modified files use:

git show --stat --oneline HEAD

edited Jul 27 '18 at 04:25

CertainPerformance

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answered Jul 27 '18 at 04:08

Fayaz

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score 0 · Answer 17 · answered May 20 '19 at 14:32

0

All great answers; just FEI, "git checkout " (switching to or in the same branch) appears to show only modified files.

answered May 20 '19 at 14:32

galaxis

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is it possible to `git status` only modified files?

17 Answers17

Update

OS: windows

OS: LINUX

Linked

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