Question

I know about git diff branch1 branch2. However, I would like to see changes introduced in one branch only. I can get this functionality with:

git checkout branch1
git merge branch2
git reset origin/branch1
git diff

Is there a shorter way to do this?

Answer 1

You can do:

git diff branch1...branch2

(note that there are three dots)

… which will show you all the changes introduced on branch2 since it diverged from branch1 (or, strictly speaking, since the merge-base). The different uses of .. and ... in git diff and git log, can be a bit confusing, so you might find the diagrams in this answer helpful.