How to see the Changes in a Git commit?

Understanding the changes introduced in each commit is crucial for effective collaboration and version control in Git. Whether you are reviewing someone else's work or tracking your own modifications, Git provides powerful tools to inspect changes. This article will guide you through the various methods to see changes in a Git commit.

What is a git commit and how does it work?

A git commit is an action in Git that saves your changes to the local repository with a descriptive message. It captures the state of the project at that moment, creating a snapshot that you can revert to or reference later.

git commit -m "Added user authentication feature"

Explanation:

• git commit: This command tells Git to save the changes you've staged.
• -m: This option allows you to add a commit message directly from the command line.
• "Added user authentication feature": This is the commit message, which should be a brief description of the changes made. It helps you and others understand what was done in this commit.

Purpose of a Commit

• Snapshot: Each commit represents a snapshot of your project at a specific point in time.
• History: Commits form a chronological history of your project, allowing you to track changes over time.
• Revert Changes: You can revert to a previous commit if needed, which is useful for undoing mistakes.
• Collaboration: Commits help in collaborating with others by providing a clear and documented change history.

How git commit Works

Stage Your Changes

Before committing, you need to stage the changes using git add. This tells Git which changes you want to include in the next commit.

git add <file>          # Stage a specific file
git add .        # Stage all changes in the current directory

Create the Commit

After staging, use the git commit command with a meaningful message to save your changes.

git commit -m "Your descriptive commit message"

Viewing the changes in Git commit

To see the changes in a specific Git commit, you can use the git show command. This command displays the details of a commit, including the commit message, author, date, and the diff of changes introduced in that commit.

git show <commit-hash>

Explanation:

• git show: The command used to display the details of a specific commit.
• <commit-hash>: The unique identifier (hash) of the commit you want to inspect. You can find this hash using commands like git log.

Steps to See Changes in a Commit

Find the Commit Hash

Use the git log command to list recent commits and find the hash of the commit you're interested in.

git log

This will output a list of commits with their hashes, authors, dates, and messages. The commit hash is the long alphanumeric string at the beginning of each entry.

Show the Commit Details

Use git show followed by the commit hash to view the details of that commit. Replace 1a2b3c4d with the actual commit hash you want to inspect.

git show 1a2b3c4d

Example:

Let's say we made some changes in a project eg. added or removed code,files,folders etc. Now we made some commits with a proper message, now when we want to look at any particular commit and what changes were made in that commit we can type git log command and a log containing a set of commits will be loaded.

Now to see the changes introduced by any commit, we would run:

git show 330bd1c2848f77fd6d7939a2debf283131cd232f

Now as we hit enter the changes made in the particular commit will be shown to us.

Now here we can notice that the data that was removed is shown in red with -* and what was added is shown in green with +*
so users can visually identify the changes.

Conclusion

Git offers robust tools for inspecting changes in commits, from the command-line git show and git diff to advanced GUI applications. Mastering these tools allows you to track and understand code modifications effectively, facilitating better collaboration and code management in your projects.