Using git diff feature on Github

Hi Folks,

Recently I came across a cool way to compare differences between two branches, two tags, or between two commits on Github. Many a times in our project we have to thoroughly see what has been a specific change in the code base before we push it on our production branch.

Here is how you can view the differences in commits:

On the Github, go to the Source view of your project. You will see a link named ‘Branch List’. Once the page opens you can see a list of all the remote branches. Hit on the Compare button in front of any of the available branches to see the difference between two branches.

Now note the URL in the address bar. It should end with something like ‘…/compare/<x>…<y>’ where x and y are separated by three dots(…) and their values could be project’s branch names

Isn’t it good?

Well, Git’s (read about git diff) and Github’s goodness does not stop just here. Instead of branch names as the values of x and y, you can also put two different commit hashes or tag names to view the differences in the code-base. More so, the commit hashes do not have to belong to the same branch. So you can pretty much compare your code’s current snap-shot with any of its past snap-shot irrespective of branch or a tag or a commit hash.

Hope this helps someone.

Abhishek Tejpaul
abhishek@intelligrape.com
[IntelliGrape Software Pvt. Ltd.]