Exclude a directory from 'git diff'

Question

How can I exclude an entire directory from my Git diff (in this case /spec)?

I'm creating a diff for our entire software release using the git diff command. However, the changes to the spec folder are irrelevant for this procedure, and just create headaches. Now I know I can do

git diff previous_release..current_release app/

This would create a diff for all the changes in the app directory, but not for instance, in the lib/ directory. How can I accomplish this task?

I just want to be clear, I know I can just string the parameters of all of my directories on the end, minus /spec. I was hoping there was a way to truly exclude a single directory in the command.

I found this amazing question because I was aiming to ignore submodules. In this case, if you are as naive as me, this question can be more helpful. — brandizzi
– brandizzi, Commented Aug 23, 2012 at 20:53
That's strange that we still have no native Git switch for doing this on Sep 2016 — Michael Z
– Michael Z, Commented Sep 12, 2016 at 15:20

Peter Mortensen · Accepted Answer · 2024-05-29 10:45:02Z

531

Based on this answer, you can also use:

git diff previous_release..current_release -- . ':!spec'

This is a newish Git feature which allows excluding certain paths. It should be more reliable than various shell one-liners.

I'm posting this here because this question is still the #1 hit for "git diff exclude path".

Since Git 2.13 (Q2 2017), you can replace ! with ^. The latter doesn't need quotes. So you can write it as:

git diff previous_release..current_release -- . :^spec

edited May 29, 2024 at 10:45

Peter Mortensen

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answered Mar 31, 2015 at 17:12

cdleonard

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12 Comments

liamvictor Over a year ago

Love this answer. If adding options then do so before the double dash. Eg: git diff previous_release current_release --name-status -- . ':!spec'

Mr_and_Mrs_D Over a year ago

What worked for me git diff --stat dev -- . ':!/Mopy/Docs/*'. What did not work for me git diff dev --stat -- . ':!('Mopy/Docs/Wrye Bash General Readme.html'|'Mopy/Docs/Wrye Bash Advanced Readme.html')' and variations

PseudoNoise Over a year ago

Can also exclude multiple items like so: git diff previous_release current_release -- . ':!file_a' ':!file_b'

Pistos Over a year ago

This works for me without needing any . after the --. Just git diff [..arguments...] -- ':!thing-to-exclude'

user1338062 Over a year ago

The manpage this is documented in is gitglossary.

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Peter Mortensen · Accepted Answer · 2024-05-29 10:45:35Z

151

Assuming you use Bash, and you've enabled extended globbing (shopt -s extglob), you could handle that from the shell side:

git diff previous_release current_release !(spec)

Saves you having to list all other things.

Or, shell-agnostic:

git diff previous_release current_release --name-only | grep -v '^spec/' \
    | xargs git diff previous_release current_release --

You could wrap that up in a one-liner shell script to save yourself having to retype the arguments.

edited May 29, 2024 at 10:45

Peter Mortensen

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answered Dec 7, 2010 at 20:13

Cascabel

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7 Comments

Cascabel Over a year ago

P.S. globbing doesn't match hidden files, so if you're obsessive, you might want to tack on .!(.|) to match everything starting with a . besides . and ...

Graham Christensen Over a year ago

This doesn't seem to work for files that are brand new or deleted across branches. I get errors that halt execution of the script, saying it can't diff against it.

Cascabel Over a year ago

@Graham: I believe that the -- I just added should fix that.

aug Over a year ago

Awesome answer. I only wanted names to show (not the actual diff) so I had to add --name-only at the very end as well.

aug Over a year ago

After playing around with it, just wanna add that if you change the name of a file, it will throw an error but all you need to do is add -- path/of/new/file and it will figure it out :)

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Peter Mortensen · Accepted Answer · 2024-05-29 10:44:33Z

51

If you want to specify more than one path to exclude in a Git diff, you just add additional exclusion parameters to the end, e.g., to exclude everything in vendor and bin directories from the stats:

git diff --stat previous_release..current_release -- . ':!vendor' ':!bin'

edited May 29, 2024 at 10:44

Peter Mortensen

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answered May 4, 2016 at 9:41

David Graham

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Peter Mortensen · Accepted Answer · 2024-05-29 12:20:00Z

46

Relative to the Git root directory

git diff accepts an optional exclude

git diff -- ":(exclude)thingToExclude"

You might want to add some wild cards

git diff -- ":(exclude)*/thingToExclude/*"

Target specific file types

git diff -- ":(exclude)*/$1/*.png"

Some syntactic sugar applied

git diff -- ":!/\$1/"

Or drop a little script for your dotfiles

Such as the `$HOME/.bash_profile` or `$HOME/.zshrc` files

gde() {
    : '
        git diff exclude files or folders
        usage:
        gde fileOrFolderNameToExclude
    '
    git diff -- ":!/\$1/"
}

edited May 29, 2024 at 12:20

Peter Mortensen

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answered Sep 11, 2019 at 16:16

jasonleonhard

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2 Comments

Alex Over a year ago

Is this documented anywhere in the official docs? For some reason, I see no mention of this parameter. git-scm.com/docs/git-diff

Alex Over a year ago

Not directly but here's the documentation git-scm.com/docs/gitglossary#Documentation/…

VonC · Accepted Answer · 2018-05-10 21:13:19Z

38

You can try and unset the diff attribute for any files within the lib directory.
.gitattributes:

lib/* -diff

racl101 adds in the comments:

Just to add to this, for those of you who want to limit the git diff output of files of a specific type, within a specific directory and its subdirectories, like all the JavaScript generated by Webpack's bundling of your .js files, for example, you can add this to .gitattributes:

dist/js/**/*.js -diff

Then you don't see all that noise in your git diff output and it just shows as: Binary files ... differ which is more helpful.

edited May 10, 2018 at 21:13

answered Dec 7, 2010 at 20:04

VonC

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6 Comments

Mysrt Over a year ago

this would remove spec from all of my diffs though. I still want to see my diffs in the spec folder normally, just not when i'm running this 'release' diff

VonC Over a year ago

@Mystr: You could set that .gitattributes file in a special branch made only for this kind of 'release' diff ;) Rebase that special branch on top of current_release and do your diff from there.

Graham Christensen Over a year ago

This, too doesn't seem to work for files that are deleted across branches. Files which were removed still show the complete diff.

Marius Over a year ago

Doesn't work for me. Are _ paths special? _site/* -diff

VonC Over a year ago

@MariusAndreiana No, '_' is not special. Can you check which gitattributes rule apply for a file of that folder with: git-scm.com/docs/git-check-attr

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Peter Mortensen · Accepted Answer · 2024-05-29 10:37:41Z

32

Git diff now accepts a custom exclusion format: git diff -- ':(exclude)lib/*'

Be careful if you have a lot of repetitive folder names ('/app', '/lib', etc.), as this will exclude files relative to the current working directory and the Git root directory.

edited May 29, 2024 at 10:37

Peter Mortensen

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answered Sep 12, 2017 at 18:33

MaxPRafferty

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5 Comments

Nicolas Dermine Over a year ago

are you missing a dot, shouldn't it rather be git diff -- . ':(exclude)lib/*'?

MaxPRafferty Over a year ago

@NicolasDermine No, though what you wrote is equivalent. The "includes" portion of the path is also optional. That's why you can just do git diff for everything relative to your current path, rather than requiring git diff -- .

cnlevy Over a year ago

Note: on windows machines, use double quotes, like git diff -- ":(exclude)lib/*"

Olivvv Over a year ago

No idea why, but for me it works only with the dot, as suggested by @NicolasDermine . I use Cmder on win10.

jk7 Over a year ago

When the folder to exclude was not a direct subfolder of the root folder of the diff I had to precede it with */ also. Ex. git diff -- . ":!*/lib/*" Using ! is shorthand for (exclude)

Jed Schneider · Accepted Answer · 2010-12-07 19:59:48Z

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git diff app lib

answered Dec 7, 2010 at 19:59

Jed Schneider

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Exclude a directory from 'git diff'

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Relative to the Git root directory

You might want to add some wild cards

Target specific file types

Some syntactic sugar applied

Or drop a little script for your dotfiles

Such as the `$HOME/.bash_profile` or `$HOME/.zshrc` files

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Relative to the Git root directory

You might want to add some wild cards

Target specific file types

Some syntactic sugar applied

Or drop a little script for your dotfiles

Such as the $HOME/.bash_profile or $HOME/.zshrc files

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Such as the `$HOME/.bash_profile` or `$HOME/.zshrc` files