Manual: filterdiff
FILTERDIFF(1) Man pages FILTERDIFF(1)
NAME
filterdiff - extract or exclude diffs from a diff file
SYNOPSIS
filterdiff [[-i PATTERN] | [--include=PATTERN]] [[-I FILE] | [--include-from-file=FILE]] [[-p n] | [--strip-match=n]]
[--strip=n] [--addprefix=PREFIX] [--addoldprefix=PREFIX] [--addnewprefix=PREFIX] [[-x PATTERN] |
[--exclude=PATTERN]] [[-X FILE] | [--exclude-from-file=FILE]] [[-v] | [--verbose]] [--clean] [--in-place]
[[-z] | [--decompress]] [[-# RANGE] | [--hunks=RANGE]] [--lines=RANGE] [[-FRANGE] | [--files=RANGE]]
[--annotate] [--format=FORMAT] [--as-numbered-lines=WHEN] [--remove-timestamps] [file...]
filterdiff {[--help] | [--version] | [--list] | [--grep ...]}
DESCRIPTION
You can use filterdiff to obtain a patch that applies to files matching the shell wildcard PATTERN from a larger
collection of patches. For example, to see the patches in patch-2.4.3.gz that apply to all files called lp.c:
filterdiff -z -i '*/lp.c' patch-2.4.3.gz
If neither -i nor -x options are given, -i '*' is assumed. This way filterdiff can be used to clean up an existing
diff file, removing redundant lines from the beginning (eg. the text from the mail body) or between the chunks (eg.
in CVS diffs). To extract pure patch data, use a command like this:
filterdiff message-with-diff-in-the-body > patch
Note that the interpretation of the shell wildcard pattern does not count slash characters or periods as special (in
other words, no flags are given to fnmatch). This is so that “*/basename”-type patterns can be given without limiting
the number of pathname components.
You can use both unified and context format diffs with this program.
OPTIONS
-i PATTERN, --include=PATTERN
Include only files matching PATTERN. All other lines in the input are suppressed.
-I FILE, --include-from-file=FILE
Include only files matching any pattern listed in FILE, one pattern per line. All other lines in the input are
suppressed.
-x PATTERN, --exclude=PATTERN
Exclude files matching PATTERN. All other lines in the input are displayed.
-X FILE, --exclude-from-file=FILE
Exclude files matching any pattern listed in FILE, one pattern per line. All other lines in the input are
displayed.
-p n, --strip-match=n
When matching, ignore the first n components of the pathname.
-# RANGE, --hunks=RANGE
Only include hunks within the specified RANGE. Hunks are numbered from 1, and the range is a comma-separated list
of numbers or “first-last” spans, optionally preceded by a modifier 'x' which inverts the entire range; either
the first or the last in the span may be omitted to indicate no limit in that direction.
--lines=RANGE
Only include hunks that contain lines from the original file that lie within the specified RANGE. Lines are
numbered from 1, and the range is a comma-separated list of numbers or “first-last” spans, optionally preceded by
a modifier 'x' which inverts the entire range; either the first or the last in the span may be omitted to
indicate no limit in that direction.
-F=RANGE, --files=RANGE
Only include files indicated by the specified RANGE. Files are numbered from 1 in the order they appear in the
patch input, and the range is a comma-separated list of numbers or “first-last” spans, optionally preceded by a
modifier 'x' which inverts the entire range; either the first or the last in the span may be omitted to indicate
no limit in that direction.
--annotate
Annotate each hunk with the filename and hunk number.
--format=unified|context
Use specified output format.
--strip=n
Remove the first n components of pathnames in the output.
--addprefix=PREFIX
Prefix pathnames in the output by PREFIX. This will override any individual settings specified with the
--addoldprefix or --addnewprefix options.
--addoldprefix=PREFIX
Prefix pathnames for old or original files in the output by PREFIX.
--addnewprefix=PREFIX
Prefix pathnames for updated or new files in the output by PREFIX.
--as-numbered-lines=before|after|original-before|original-after
Instead of a patch fragment, display the lines of the selected hunks with the line number of the file before (or
after) the patch is applied, followed by a TAB character and a colon, at the beginning of each line. Each hunk
except the first will have a line consisting of “...” before it.
The before and after options show line numbers adjusted for any skipped hunks. The original-before and
original-after options show line numbers as they appear in the original diff, preserving the original line number
context. This is useful for CI/CD systems that need to report errors on the exact line numbers from the original
diff.
--remove-timestamps
Do not include file timestamps in the output.
-v, --verbose
Always show non-diff lines in the output. By default, non-diff lines are only shown when excluding a filename
pattern.
--clean
Always remove all non-diff lines from the output. Even when excluding a filename pattern.
--in-place
Write output to the original input files instead of standard output. This allows filtering multiple patch files
without manual redirection loops.
-z, --decompress
Decompress files with extensions .gz and .bz2.
--help
Display a short usage message.
--version
Display the version number of filterdiff.
--list
Behave like lsdiff(1) instead.
--grep
Behave like grepdiff(1) instead.
EXAMPLES
To see all patch hunks that affect the first five lines of a C file:
filterdiff -i '*.c' --lines=-5 < patch
To see the first hunk of each file patch, use:
filterdiff -#1 patchfile
To see patches modifying a ChangeLog file in a subdirectory, use:
filterdiff -p1 Changelog
To see the complete patches for each patch that modifies line 1 of the original file, use:
filterdiff --lines=1 patchfile | lsdiff | \
xargs -rn1 filterdiff patchfile -i
To see all but the first hunk of a particular patch, you might use:
filterdiff -p1 -i file.c -#2- foo-patch
If you have a very specific list of hunks in a patch that you want to see, list them:
filterdiff -#1,2,5-8,10,12,27-
To see the lines of the files that would be patched as they will appear after the patch is applied, use:
filterdiff --as-numbered-lines=after patch.file
You can see the same context before the patch is applied with:
filterdiff --as-numbered-lines=before
patch.file
For CI/CD systems that need line numbers matching the original diff context (useful for error reporting), use the
original-* variants:
grepdiff pattern --output-matching=hunk \
--as-numbered-lines=original-after patch.file
Filterdiff can also be used to convert between unified and context format diffs:
filterdiff -v --format=unified context.diff
SEE ALSO
lsdiff(1), grepdiff(1), patchview(1)
AUTHOR
Tim Waugh
Package maintainer
patchutils 23 Jan 2009 FILTERDIFF(1)