How can I see the differences between two branches?

git diff branch_1..branch_2

That will produce the diff between the tips of the two branches. If you'd prefer to find the diff from their common ancestor to test, you can use three dots instead of two:

git diff branch_1...branch_2

And if you just want to check which files differ, not how the content differs. Use this:

git diff --name-only branch_1...branch_2

There are many different ways to compare branches, and it's depend on the specific use case you need.

Many times you want to compare because something broken and you want to see what has been changes, then fix it, and see again what changed before commiting.

Personally when I want to see the diff what I like to do:

git checkout branch_1 # checkout the oldest branchgit checkout -b compare-branch # create a new branchgit merge --no-commit --squash branch_2 # put files from the new branch in the working foldergit status # see file names that changesgit diff # see the content that changed.

Using this solution you will see the diff, you can also see only the file names using git status, and the most important part you will be able to execute branch_2 while seeing the diff (branch_2 is on the working tree). If something had broken you can editing the files and fix it. Anytime, you can type again git status or git diff to see the diff from the new edit to branch_a.

You can simply show difference by-git diff b1...b2Or you can show commit difference using-git log b1..b2You can see commit difference in a nice graphical way using -git log --oneline --graph --decorate --abbrev-commit b1..b2