Show non-merge differences for two commits in git

Question

I have two commits, once of which is the ancestor of another. (They happen to be the start and end points of a branch. I don't think that matters, but I'll include it if it does).

I want to see the diff between the two commits, but excluding changes made during merge commits (that is, all commits with more than one parent) that were made between the two commits. (Basically, I want any "real" commit that was made to the branch, excluding the merges.)

Is this possible? If so, how do you accomplish this?

If necessary, assume that there are no conflicts resolved during the merge commits... but bonus points for a solution that can handle them elegantly.

Please clarify: do you want an individual diff for each commit that is not a merge commit, or do you expect something else? — Jeff Ferland, Dec 28 '10 at 20:30
@Autocracy: I've edited it and hopefully clarified what I'm looking for. Let me know if it still doesn't make sense. — Craig Walker, Dec 28 '10 at 21:41

score 18 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 28 '10 at 20:21

18

Your question is slightly ambiguous but I think you want this.

git log --no-merges -p branch-start..branch-end

answered Dec 28 '10 at 20:21

CB Bailey

700,257
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1

You might also prefer `--first-parent` instead. – Ryan C. Thompson Dec 28 '10 at 20:29
2

-p is the ticket, when combined with --no-merges. Thanks! – Craig Walker Dec 28 '10 at 21:47
It's a shame you can't do this (create a range) against cached/current (not commited)... you can get the entire diff with `git diff $(git merge-base branchA currentbranch)`. Sulk! – Andy Hayden Jun 01 '14 at 00:00
Also see: [git: cumulative diff with commit-limiting](http://stackoverflow.com/q/25403705) – TachyonVortex Aug 21 '14 at 15:08
This command line is met my questions as well... btw, how can we use GitHub pull request view instead of this command line? – Haven Lin Dec 07 '20 at 10:04

score 5 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:54

If your merges all came from the same branch (say master) or are all contained in another branch, you can use the solution from this question.

Assuming you have a tree like the following:

         x---y-+-z-+-branch
        /     /   /
---a---b---c-+-d-+-e---master

and the two commits you would like to compare are b and branch. Then instead of comparing the two commits directly, running

git diff master...branch

will show all changes done on the branch (x,y,z) excluding everything that is also on master (c,d,e, the merges). Note that this also ignores any changes done on master that are not yet in the branch.

From the docs:

git diff [--options] commit...commit [--] […]

This form is to view the changes on the branch containing and up to the second commit, starting at a common ancestor of both commits. "git diff A...B" is equivalent to "git diff $(git-merge-base A B) B".

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 29 '10 at 15:06

2

I didn't know the --no-merges -o options but here another solution (I suppose that merges have been done from master) :

git checkout -b temp
git rebase --onto master branch-start branch-end
git diff master

answered Dec 29 '10 at 15:06

mgautierfr

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score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Jan 17 '20 at 16:44

Here's how I compare my checked out branch to master, excluding changes made during merge commits. I prefer using Meld's directory mode.

# if you've never setup Meld as your difftool
sudo apt install meld
git config --global diff.tool meld

# the command to see the differences
git difftool -d --no-merges master

Show non-merge differences for two commits in git

4 Answers4

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