Question

How do I see the difference between a local file (in Master) and the same file in the remote repository (origin) in git? When I do a git fetch origin and then do a git diff master origin/master. It shows me a huge list of changes, which is not really helpful for a lot of java files.

Answer 1

git diff master origin/master -- file/to/compare

The -- is a convention that many programs use; it indicates that any parameters after it are not to be considered options, even if they start with a hyphen. Git extends this convention and uses -- to indicate that the following parameters are files (and not branches or other refs, whose names may overlap with file names).

Actually, I believe the -- is optional as long as you do not use file names which also exist as branches etc., but it’s easier to always use it.

Also see the git diff manpage. The “–” convention is explained in this question:
Deleting a badly named git branch