:orphan:

hg diff
=======

diff repository (or selected files)
-----------------------------------

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`.

.. container:: verbose

  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.