Get the difference between two branches in Git

Question

I did following (I simplified this comparing to a reality):

• created a branch Branch1, switched to it
• added file File1 and modified existing file File2 and commited this
• figured out that I don't need File1, removed it and commited this

So, the actual difference between original branch and Branch1 is only modification of File2.

I want to get this actual difference between branches and put in Branch2. Generally speaking, I want to get rid of not necessary history of adding/removing File1.

Answer 1

Let's assume that you started on the branch master. Then you can do:

git diff master Branch1 > ../patchfile git checkout Branch2     git apply ../patchfile 

Alternatively, if your goal is to rewrite history, then you could use an interactive rebase to squash commits.