Today I updated a library version in a project, which changed the path from packages/FSharp.Formatting.CommandTool-2.8.0 to packages/FSharpFormatting.CommandTool-2.9.1. We’d also taken our own copies of some templates in the package, and I wanted to check if there were any differences between -2.8.0\templates and -2.9.1\templates that I should port across.

Rather than my usual fumbling about (check out both, copy, diff) I thought I’d try to learn the necessary Git incantation to compare the paths. And then blog it, so that when I forget I’ll have a quick reference handy for next time. :)

I ended up using git diff with the COMMIT:PATH format, using HEAD and HEAD~1 as the commit references (shown split over multiple lines):

git diff --ignore-space-change \
    HEAD:source/packages/FSharp.Formatting.CommandTool.2.9.1/templates \
    HEAD~1:source/packages/FSharp.Formatting.CommandTool.2.8.0/templates/

To get a summary of the files changes instead (in this case, to confirm nothing changed), use the --stat option:

% git diff --stat --ignore-space-change HEAD:source/packages/FSharp.Formatting.CommandTool.2.9.1/templates HEAD~1:source/packages/FSharp.Formatting.CommandTool.2.8.0/templates
 docpage.cshtml                | 0
 reference/module.cshtml       | 0
 reference/namespaces.cshtml   | 0
 reference/part-members.cshtml | 0
 reference/part-nested.cshtml  | 0
 reference/type.cshtml         | 0
 template.cshtml               | 0
 7 files changed, 0 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)

I was pretty impressed that Git’s Bash prompt on Windows gave me autocompletion on the HEAD~1:/...2.8.0/ path despite the path no longer being in the working directory.