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I have two different files in different branches. How can I diff them in one command?

Something like

# git diff branch1/foo.txt branch2/foo-another.txt

I could check out the other file, diff it and restore, but that's quite dirty solution.

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5 Answers 5

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git diff branch1:full/path/to/foo.txt branch2:full/path/to/foo-another.txt

You can also use relative paths:

git diff branch1:./relative/path/to/foo.txt branch2:./relative/path/to/foo-another.txt
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  • 11
    Awesome! I was certainly not able to infer that from git help diff. By the way, those don't have to be branch names ahead of the colons, but can be any kind of commit references (e.g. SHA-1 values).
    – Steve Jorgensen
    Commented Jun 29, 2012 at 19:16
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    Important Note: Git on windows requires the full itemspec to be a unix name. i.e. branch1:full\path\to\foo.txt fails, while branch1:full/path/to/foo.txt works fine, as does full\path\to\foo.txt (no branch)
    – Eris
    Commented Nov 20, 2013 at 20:51
  • use git difftool and then drop the branch2: and that will allow you to edit a file in the current working tree (to bring over changes from branch1)
    – gMale
    Commented Oct 6, 2017 at 2:17
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    Tried on linux with git version 1.8.3.1, only relative paths allowed.
    – Sola Yang
    Commented Nov 15, 2017 at 22:20
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Sidenote: no need for full paths, you can start with ./ for relative paths. It can be handy sometimes.

git diff branch1:./relative/path/to/foo.txt branch2:./relative/path/to/foo-another.txt
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Off-topic answer -- diffing the same file in different branches

Just to add it for I find it a very straightforward syntax :

git diff <branch1> <branch2> <filepath>

Also works with relative refs like for example :

# compare the previous committed state from HEAD with the state branch1 was 3 commits ago
git diff HEAD^ <branch1>~3 <filepath>
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    The OP specifically asked for "different files". Your answer is about comparing the same file in two different branches.
    – Étienne Miret
    Commented Oct 16, 2019 at 8:35
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    @EtienneMiret You're absolutely right, I missed that important point. Off-topic answer.
    – Romain Valeri
    Commented Oct 16, 2019 at 8:51
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    Still, many people land on this question because they want to get the difference for the same file, and this answer is useful.
    – Matthieu
    Commented Mar 30, 2022 at 12:15
  • @Matthieu Then why not link to a relevant answer rather?
    – jtlz2
    Commented Oct 25, 2022 at 9:48
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    @jtlz2 I'm not sure I understand. This answer is relevant for that problem (albeit not the OP). The cause is Google that lands us here ;)
    – Matthieu
    Commented Oct 25, 2022 at 13:19
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There are many ways to compare files from two diferents branchs. For example:

  • If the name is the same or different:

     git diff branch1:file branch2:file

    Example:

     git diff branch1:full/path/to/foo.txt branch2:full/path/to/foo-another.txt

  • Only if the name is the same and you want to compare your current working directory to some branch:

    git diff ..someBranch path/to/file

    Example: 

    git diff ..branch2 full/path/to/foo.txt

    In this example you are comparing the file from your actual branch to the file in the master branch.

You can check this response:

Compare a file from two different branchs in Git

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  • "Only if the name is the same and you want to compare your current working directory to some branch": This is misleading. It compares **the latest commit to the current branch"" to some other branch. Your wording implies that it will compare the file actually found on disk, if there are uncommitted changes; it's not so.
    – Hammerite
    Commented Sep 2, 2022 at 10:01
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You can specify a start and range for git diff to be applied to. The range is indicated with the .. notation.

branch1=somebranch
branch2=someotherbranch
git diff ${branch1}..${branch2} -- file_path
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    This is only comparing the same file in two branches; the question was about two different files in two branches.
    – Piran
    Commented Apr 8, 2020 at 16:26
  • @Piran and I landed on this question because I wanted to compare the same file in two branches so I'm happy this answer exists.
    – Matthieu
    Commented Mar 30, 2022 at 12:16

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