What's an easy way to detect modified files in a Git workspace?

During make, I create string fields which I embedded in the linked output. Very useful.

Other than a complex sed/grep parsing of the git status command, how can I easily determine if files in the workspace have been modified according to git?

Solution 1:

If you just want a plain “Are there any differences from HEAD?”:

git diff-index --quiet HEAD

If the exit code is 0, then there were no differences.

If you want “What files have changed from HEAD?”:

git diff-index --name-only HEAD

If you want “What files have changed from HEAD, and in what ways have they changed (added, deleted, changed)?”:

git diff-index --name-status HEAD

Add -M (and -C) if you want rename (and copy) detection.

These commands will check both the staged contents (what is in the index) and the files in the working tree. Alternatives like git ls-files -m will only check the working tree against the index (i.e. they will disregard any staged (but uncommitted) content that is also in the working tree).

Solution 2:

From git help -a:

git ls-files -m

Solution 3:

git status --porcelain seems to give a nice parsable output.

Solution 4:

For git hooks, I found this command useful

git diff-index --exit-code --ignore-submodules HEAD

For example

//run some static analysis check that can change the code
something_changed=`git diff-index --exit-code --ignore-submodules HEAD`
if [ -n "$something_changed" ]
then
    echo >&2 "Something changed in $local_ref, not pushing"
    exit 1
fi