Actually, I was actually using git log (not git diff... sorry for the mistake) because I also mine other information I(dates, author, summary, etc) 'git log -m --first-parent --pretty=fuller --decorate=short --name-only REL1..REL2' That being said, I can work with the git diff output to filter out the irrelevant info. I would still be curious about whether this is a valid use of git log. Thanks, Jack McRoberts Configuration Management Software Specialist General Atomics EMS Group Work Phone: 858-522-8342 16969 Mesamint St, Room 86-1023G, San Diego, CA 92127 ************************************************************************ CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This communication is intended to be confidential to the person(s) to whom it is addressed. If you are not the intended recipient or the agent of the intended recipient or if you are unable to deliver this communication to the intended recipient, you must not read, use or disseminate this information. If you have received this communication in error, please advise the sender immediately by telephone and delete this message and any attachments without retaining a copy. ************************************************************************** -----Original Message----- From: Elijah Newren Sent: Tuesday, July 9, 2019 4:13 PM To: McRoberts, John Cc: git@vger.kernel.org Subject: -EXT-Re: Problem with git diff WARNING: This message is from an external source. Evaluate the message carefully BEFORE clicking on links or opening attachments. Hi John, On Tue, Jul 9, 2019 at 3:57 PM McRoberts, John wrote: > > I am responsible for generating a list of all files changed between > two successive releases of software. I was using 'git diff' but have > run into a problem. > > Consider the following situation: A development branch comes off of > commit A and files are changed three times. A tag (REL1) is placed on > the third commit. Then the branch is merged back to master. At this > point, master's HEAD is at C (and it remains there). Two development > branches are created off of master, the first of which is not > important here. In the second one, there are files changed and a tag (REL2) > applied. > > > ---------------------[I] > > / {dev branch} > > / > > / > {master branch} > / > [A] > ---------------------------------[B]------------------------------->[C > ] > master > \ filelist 6 / \ > \ / > \ > \ / > \ > \ / > \ > \ {development branch} / > \ > \------->[D]----------------------->[E]-------------------[F] > \------[G]--------[H] > REL1 > REL2 > fileset 1 fileset 2 fileset 3 > fileset 4 fileset 5 > > At this point, I run > 'git diff -m --first-parent --pretty=fuller --decorate=short > --name-only REL2..REL2' Wow, we really, really need to throw errors and warnings when people use crazy range operators with diff.[1][2] What version of git are you using that accepts --decorate=short as an argument to `git diff`? And why in the world does git diff accept --first-parent or --pretty=fuller?!? That's insane for git-diff to swallow that. (#leftoverbits?) Also, I think you meant `REL1` one of the two times you wrote `REL2`, which makes me suspect you may have done some copy-edit-paste and didn't try this actual command. > I expect to see only filesets 4 and 5 listed. I also see filesets 1, > 2 and > 3 showing up. This means that the git diff command is showing files > that,in fact, did not change between the two tags. By the way, I > verified with a file by file comparison that under REL2 and REL1, the > files represented by filesets 1, 2 and 3 had identical contents. From your description, I assume you actually ran something like git diff --name-only REL1..REL2 which compares REL2 to the merge base of REL1 and REL2 (yes, this is totally counter-intuitive to a large percentage of the git userbase, but it is well documented and hard to change). Also from your description, what you seem to want is git diff --name-only REL1 REL2 since you want to compare the two endpoints. Does that help get what you want? Hope that helps, Elijah [1] https://public-inbox.org/git/CABPp-BECj___HneAYviE3SB=wU6OTcBi3S=+Un1sP6L4WJ7agA@mail.gmail.com/ [2] https://public-inbox.org/git/CABPp-BGg_iSx3QMc-J4Fov97v9NnAtfxZGMrm3WfrGugOThjmA@mail.gmail.com/