git: list of all changed files including those in submodules

Question

I would like to get a list of all files, which have changed betweet two commits including those in submodules.

I know I can do this:

git diff --name-only --diff-filter=ACMR ${revision} HEAD

It returns a list of files, including the submodule-path, but not the files within.

Example: I've updated a submodule. I commited the super-project. Now I want to get a list of all files which have been modified.

Do you know a way to get this done?

Vivianne

Answer 1

Update 2017: as I mentioned in "see diff of commit on submodule in gitlab",

• Git 2.11 (Nov. 2016) introduces

  git diff --submodule=diff
  

• Git 2.14 (Q3 2017) will improve that by recursing into nested submodules.
  See commit 5a52214 (04 May 2017) by Stefan Beller (stefanbeller).
  ^{(Merged by Junio C Hamano -- gitster -- in commit a531ecf, 29 May 2017)}

---

Original 2012 answer (pre 2017 Git 2.14)

Maybe a simple line would be enough:

git submodule foreach --recursive git diff --name-status

That would actually list files in submodules within submodules.
(The --recursive option comes from git1.7.3+)

Anceline

git submodule update --remote --recursive followed by your foreach diff command shows nothing (because it just runs git diff in each submodule). How can we see the diff of the update we just ran? – Johanna

@Johanna an update --remote would change the gitlink (SHA1 representing the submodule commit checked out). If you can get the previous gitlink sha1 and the current one (with a simple git diff in the parent repo), you can then go in the submodule, and do a git diff between those two SHA1. – Anceline

I thought the questioner was looking for a way to do that automatically. – Johanna

I'm lookingfor the same as OP, the --submodule=diff works wonderfully, except in combination with --name-only. I need the files that changed, including the submodules. Is that somehow possible? git version is 2.17.1. Recursing doesn't work either, because I need to check against a specific merge-base on the top level repo. – Mollescent

@Mollescent Not sure: that would be a good question on its own. – Anceline

@Anceline OPs question is with name-only, I now used a workaround, I basically use your command, filter it with grep for the lines starting with +++ and --- and then cut the first part and pass that to uniq. – Mollescent

@Mollescent Got it. That seems not very convenient indeed. – Anceline

This answer is incorrect as question is specific about --name-only which will not work. – Isa

@Isa Agreed. That is what the previous comment from CodeMonkey alluded to. – Anceline

Answer 2

You can find out what version a submodule was at, as of a given parent module commit, using git ls-tree:

subcommit=$(git ls-tree $parentcommit $submodulepath | awk '{print $3}')

So here's a script that should get you much of the way there, up to output formatting and such:

#!/bin/sh

function compare {
    if [[ -z "$3" ]];
        then git diff --name-only --ignore-submodules=all --diff-filter=ACMR "$1" "$2"
        else git diff --name-only --ignore-submodules=all --diff-filter=ACMR "$1" "$2" | awk -v r=$3 '{ print "" r "/" $0}'
    fi

    for submodule in `git submodule | awk '{print $2}'`
    do
        old=$(git ls-tree $1 $submodule | awk '{print $3}')
        new=$(git ls-tree $2 $submodule | awk '{print $3}')
        (cd $submodule; compare $old $new $submodule)
    done
}

compare "$1" "$2"

This will output all files like this (although Base is a submodule): HtmlTemplates/Css/Screen.css Base/Php/Classes/Helper.php

Afghanistan

Answer 3

July 8,2017

Now to get a diff including that of a submodule, you can use the command -

git diff --submodule=diff

Note - This has been introduced with Git 2.14.0

"git diff --submodule=diff" now recurses into nested submodules.

Megaphone

yes it does, but when I appliy --name-only it shows only submodule name, so i want changed files inside submod ... but not filecontent – Fasten

Answer 4

I'm surprised nobody has said this, but as of v1.8.1 you can do this:

git config diff.submodule diff

and now all git diff commands for two revs will also diff the contents (not just the refs) of submodules.

Ironic

Answer 5

So, the very straightforward script that lists all changes compared to a revision

#!/bin/sh
echo "Listing changes for super module"
git diff $1 --name-only
subs=(`git submodule | awk '{print $2}'`)
for sub in ${subs[*]}; do
   lastrevision=`git diff  $1 $sub | fgrep "Subproject" | head -n1 | awk '{print $3}'`
   cd $sub
   echo "Listing changes for $sub"
   git diff $lastrevision --name-only
   cd ..
done

it takes one argument - revision you want to compare with. Make sure that there is fgrep "Subproject", not fgrep "Submodule".

Blunderbuss

Thank you. This will show me the files which have changed since the last commit of the submodules. But how do I get all files which have changed (including submodules) between to revisions of the super-project? – Vivianne

So you were committing submodules as well? I guess you will need some sort of a script... – Blunderbuss

ProTip™: Save this as git-diff-submodules and run it with git diff-submodules – Johanna

@Johanna What is git diff-submodules? – Houseman

Answer 6

A Windows variant of https://mcmap.net/q/351233/-git-list-of-all-changed-files-including-those-in-submodules by Jamey Sharp would be

@echo off
if NOT %1.==. goto has_rev1

@echo git diff --name-only including submodules
@echo usage:
@echo ^ ^ %~n0 ^<revision1^> [^<revision2^>^|HEAD]
@exit /b 1

:has_rev1
setlocal
set rev1=%1
if %2.==. (set rev2=HEAD) else (set rev2=%2)

call :show_diff %rev1% %rev2%
exit /b
::eof

:show_diff
setlocal ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION
for /f "tokens=*" %%l in ('git --no-pager diff --name-only --ignore-submodules^=all --line-prefix^=%3 %1 %2') do set fwds=%%l & set bcks=!fwds:/=\! & echo !bcks! 
endlocal
::git submodule is too slow for this
::for /f "tokens=2" %%d in ('git submodule') do call :subm %1 %2 %%d %3
if exist .gitmodules for /f "tokens=1,3*" %%p in (.gitmodules) do if %%p.==path. call :subm %1 %2 %%q %3
exit /b
::show_diff

:subm
setlocal
for /f "tokens=3" %%r in ('git ls-tree %1 %3') do set rev1=%%r
for /f "tokens=3" %%r in ('git ls-tree %2 %3') do set rev2=%%r

set fwdslash=%3
set bckslash=%fwdslash:/=\%

pushd %bckslash%
call :show_diff %rev1% %rev2% %4%bckslash%\
popd

endlocal
exit /b
::subm

(note that it might need a few more double quotes for spaces in the submodule names to work).

Venepuncture

Answer 7

I use now with git 2.32.0:

git diff --submodule=diff

and parse output with regular expression pattern: "--- a/(.*)"

Fasten

Will not work with "Renamed" – Isa

thx for the hint. – Fasten

will not work for newly added files either – Fasten

Answer 8

You can use

git -c color.diff=false diff --submodule=diff HEAD~1 HEAD | sed -n -e s/^diff\ --git\ a\\///p

to just have a list of your files (with HEAD~1 and HEAD as example refs).

I prefer

git -c color.diff=false diff --submodule=diff HEAD~1 HEAD | grep -E "^(diff|Submodule)\ "

to group the files by submodules. Depending on the terminal, it can be important to use the "--no-pager" option, as shown in the following remark.

Remark: I like the complete colored diffs in a file, which can be "htmlized" for presentation afterwards:

git -c color.diff=always --no-pager diff --submodule=diff HEAD~1 HEAD > diffFileName

Anastaciaanastas