One of the things I like about git, is the concept of working directory, index and repository. The index, or staging area, is really useful for gathering related changes before committing to the repostitory.
The GitGuys have a good description of the difference between these three.
Sometimes we will have changes in the working directory and/or the index. To compare differences between these different states:
| Command | Useful Alias | Working Directory | Index | Repo (HEAD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| git diff | gd | • | • | |
| git diff –cached | gdc | • | • | |
| git diff HEAD | gdh | • | • |
If you want to diff a particular file, add -- filename to end of command e.g.
git diff -- src/sql/update_20140125a.sql
git diff --cached -- src/sql/update_20140125a.sql
To see contents of a file in a particular state
| State | Command |
|---|---|
| Working Directory | cat filename |
| Index | git show :filename |
| Repo (HEAD) | git show HEAD:filename |
And to get a good understanding of how git works, take a look at Git from the inside out