# hg diff

## diff repository (or selected files)

Contents

- Synopsis
- Description
- Options

# Synopsis

    hg diff [OPTION]... ([-c REV] | [--from REV1] [--to REV2]) [FILE]...

# Description

Show differences between revisions for the specified files.

Differences between files are shown using the unified diff format.

Note

`hg diff` may generate unexpected results for merges, as it will default to comparing against the working directory's first parent changeset if no revisions are specified. To diff against the conflict regions, you can use --config diff.merge=yes.

By default, the working directory files are compared to its first parent. To see the differences from another revision, use --from. To see the difference to another revision, use --to. For example, `hg diff --from .^` will show the differences from the working copy's grandparent to the working copy, `hg diff --to .` will show the diff from the working copy to its parent (i.e. the reverse of the default), and `hg diff --from 1.0 --to 1.2` will show the diff between those two revisions.

Alternatively you can specify -c/--change with a revision to see the changes in that changeset relative to its first parent (i.e. `hg diff -c 42` is equivalent to `hg diff --from 42^ --to 42`)

Without the -a/--text option, diff will avoid generating diffs of files it detects as binary. With -a, diff will generate a diff anyway, probably with undesirable results.

Use the -g/--git option to generate diffs in the git extended diff format. For more information, read `hg help diffs`.

Examples:

- compare a file in the current working directory to its parent:

      hg diff foo.c

- compare two historical versions of a directory, with rename info:

      hg diff --git --from 1.0 --to 1.2 lib/

- get change stats relative to the last change on some date:

      hg diff --stat --from "date('may 2')"

- diff all newly-added files that contain a keyword:

      hg diff "set:added() and grep(GNU)"

- compare a revision and its parents:

      hg diff -c 9353                  # compare against first parent
      hg diff --from 9353^ --to 9353   # same using revset syntax
      hg diff --from 9353^2 --to 9353  # compare against the second parent

Returns 0 on success.

# Options

`-r, --rev <REV[+]>`
| revision (DEPRECATED)
`--from <REV1>` | revision to diff from
`--to <REV2>` | revision to diff to
`-c, --change <REV>`
| change made by revision
`--ignore-changes-from-ancestors`
| only compare the change made by the selected revision (EXPERIMENTAL)
`-a, --text` | treat all files as text
`-g, --git` | use git extended diff format (DEFAULT: diff.git)
`--binary` | generate binary diffs in git mode (default)
`--nodates` | omit dates from diff headers
`--noprefix` | omit a/ and b/ prefixes from filenames
`-p, --show-function`
| show which function each change is in (DEFAULT: diff.showfunc)
`--reverse` | produce a diff that undoes the changes
`-w, --ignore-all-space`
| ignore white space when comparing lines
`-b, --ignore-space-change`
| ignore changes in the amount of white space
`-B, --ignore-blank-lines`
| ignore changes whose lines are all blank
`-Z, --ignore-space-at-eol`
| ignore changes in whitespace at EOL
`-U, --unified <NUM>`
| number of lines of context to show
`--stat` | output diffstat-style summary of changes
`--root <DIR>` | produce diffs relative to subdirectory
`-I, --include <PATTERN[+]>`
| include names matching the given patterns
`-X, --exclude <PATTERN[+]>`
| exclude names matching the given patterns
`-S, --subrepos` | recurse into subrepositories

[+] marked option can be specified multiple times