How to get the changes on a branch in Git

Solution 1:

In the context of a revision list, A...B is how git-rev-parse defines it. git-log takes a revision list. git-diff does not take a list of revisions - it takes one or two revisions, and has defined the A...B syntax to mean how it's defined in the git-diff manpage. If git-diff did not explicitly define A...B, then that syntax would be invalid. Note that the git-rev-parse manpage describes A...B in the "Specifying Ranges" section, and everything in that section is only valid in situations where a revision range is valid (i.e. when a revision list is desired).

To get a log containing just x, y, and z, try git log HEAD..branch (two dots, not three). This is identical to git log branch --not HEAD, and means all commits on branch that aren't on HEAD.

Solution 2:

git cherry branch [newbranch]

does exactly what you are asking, when you are in the master branch.

I am also very fond of:

git diff --name-status branch [newbranch]

Which isn't exactly what you're asking, but is still very useful in the same context.

Solution 3:

What you want to see is the list of outgoing commits. You can do this using

git log master..branchName 

or

git log master..branchName --oneline

Where I assume that "branchName" was created as a tracking branch of "master".

Similarly, to see the incoming changes you can use:

git log branchName..master