Question

Does any one how to exclude files when comparing folders with git diff –no-index ? It seems this option

':(exclude)*.min.css'

does not work with no-index (outside working tree)

Copy the trees to be diffed to new trees, and remove the files you don’t want. Not pretty but will do the trick. — torek, Nov 26, 2018 at 1:26

VonC · Answer 1 · 2018-11-26 06:03:58Z

7

The pathspec :(exclude) and its short form :! or :^ is available only within a Git working tree.

So:

either, as commented, you can put it in a (temporary) git local repo (git init . + git add) or
you would need to do your git diff --no-index in a find -exec command with exclude directives.

answered Nov 26, 2018 at 6:03

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1
Is it documented that pathspecs are only available within a Git working tree? Does this mean pathspecs are NEVER available with –no-index, even if the command is run from within a Git working tree?
– Josiah Yoder
Aug 11, 2020 at 13:43
@JosiahYoder Not sure actually: what did you try?
– VonC
Aug 11, 2020 at 15:13
I tried cd’ing into one of the repos to be compared, then tried creating a temporary git repo. Both used --no-index, and both simply showed usage . I think --no-index simply doesn’t work with :!.git
– Josiah Yoder
Aug 11, 2020 at 15:23
In the end, I followed this answer to a very similar question, which recommended making one repo a remote of the other.
– Josiah Yoder
Aug 11, 2020 at 15:25
@VonC I dont think the second option you mentioned works as you think it does. At least the following doesn’t work for me: find . -name '*.txt' -exec git diff --stat --no-index git_test1/*.txt git_test2/*.txt \; Any tipps or snippets for the second option would be appreciated.
– Sam Fed
May 20, 2021 at 13:48

1 Answer