Synopsis

svn diff [-r N[:M]] [TARGET...]

svn diff URL1[@N] URL2[@M]

Description

Display the differences between two paths. Each TARGET can be either a working copy path or URL. If no TARGET is specified, a value of '.' is assumed.

If TARGET is a URL, then revs N and M must be given via the --revision.

If TARGET is a working copy path, then the --revision switch means:

If the alternate syntax is used, the server compares URL1 and URL2 at revisions N and M respectively. If either N or M are omitted, a value of HEAD is assumed.

Alternate Names

di

Changes

Nothing

Accesses Repository

For obtaining differences against anything but BASE revision in your working copy

Switches

--revision (-r) REV
--extensions (-x) "ARGS"
--non-recursive (-N)
--diff-cmd CMD
--username USER
--password PASS
--no-auth-cache
--non-interactive
--no-diff-deleted
          

Examples

Compare BASE and your working copy (one of the most popular uses of svn diff):

$ svn diff COMMITTERS 
Index: COMMITTERS
===================================================================
--- COMMITTERS	(revision 4404)
+++ COMMITTERS	(working copy)
          

See how your working copy's modifications compare against an older revision:

$ svn diff -r 3900 COMMITTERS 
Index: COMMITTERS
===================================================================
--- COMMITTERS	(revision 3900)
+++ COMMITTERS	(working copy)
          

Compare revision 3000 to revision 3500 using '@' syntax:

$ svn diff http://svn.collab.net/repos/svn/trunk/COMMITTERS@3000 http://svn.collab.net/repos/svn/trunk/COMMITTERS@3500
Index: COMMITTERS
===================================================================
--- COMMITTERS	(revision 3000)
+++ COMMITTERS	(revision 3500)
…
          

Compare revision 3000 to revision 3500 using range notation (you only pass the one URL in this case):

$ svn diff -r 3000:3500 http://svn.collab.net/repos/svn/trunk/COMMITTERS
Index: COMMITTERS
===================================================================
--- COMMITTERS	(revision 3000)
+++ COMMITTERS	(revision 3500)
          

If you have a working copy, you can obtain the differences without typing in the long URLs:

$ svn diff -r 3000:3500 COMMITTERS 
Index: COMMITTERS
===================================================================
--- COMMITTERS	(revision 3000)
+++ COMMITTERS	(revision 3500)
          

Use --diff-cmd CMD -x to pass arguments directly to the external diff program

svn diff --diff-cmd /usr/bin/diff -x "-i -b" COMMITTERS 
Index: COMMITTERS
===================================================================
0a1,2
> This is a test
>