"git-diff-tree", "git-diff-files" and "git-diff" can take '-c' or
'--cc' option to produce 'combined diff'. For showing a merge commit
-with "git log -p", this is the default format.
+with "git log -p", this is the default format; you can force showing
+full diff with the '-m' option.
A 'combined diff' format looks like this:
------------
Shows all commits that are in local master but not in any remote
repository master branches.
+git log -p -m --first-parent::
+
+ Shows the history including change diffs, but only from the
+ "main branch" perspective, skipping commits that come from merged
+ branches, and showing full diffs of changes introduced by the merges.
+ This makes sense only when following a strict policy of merging all
+ topic branches when staying on a single integration branch.
+
+
Discussion
----------
-c::
- This flag changes the way a merge commit is displayed. It shows
- the differences from each of the parents to the merge result
+ With this option, diff output for a merge commit
+ shows the differences from each of the parents to the merge result
simultaneously instead of showing pairwise diff between a parent
and the result one at a time. Furthermore, it lists only files
which were modified from all parents.
the parents have only two variants and the merge result picks
one of them without modification.
+-m::
+
+ This flag makes the merge commits show the full diff like
+ regular commits; for each merge parent, a separate log entry
+ and diff is generated. An exception is that only diff against
+ the first parent is shown when '--first-parent' option is given;
+ in that case, the output represents the changes the merge
+ brought _into_ the then-current branch.
+
-r::
Show recursive diffs.
return 0;
else if (opt->combine_merges)
return do_diff_combined(opt, commit);
+ else if (opt->first_parent_only) {
+ /*
+ * Generate merge log entry only for the first
+ * parent, showing summary diff of the others
+ * we merged _in_.
+ */
+ diff_tree_sha1(parents->item->object.sha1, sha1, "", &opt->diffopt);
+ log_tree_diff_flush(opt);
+ return !opt->loginfo;
+ }
/* If we show individual diffs, show the parent info */
log->parent = parents->item;