How can I run 'git diff some/long/file/name' without typing the full path?

Question

In my workflow, I often run the following pair of commands:

$ git status
M README.txt
M some/long/file/name
$ git diff some/long/file/name

Is there any way, for fast typing/use_shortcat for long file name without copying it name (this action require using mouse and it's no so fast like typing)? Maybe something like git diff $2, where $2 is second changed file from the status list...?

Answer 1

Another way you can do it without installing a separate tool is to strip the output of git status, and pipe it through sed, then back to git diff. Its a long command, so you can put it in your .bashrc and alias it. For example, putting this in my .bashrc:

 myfunction() {
 git status --porcelain | sed -n "${1} s/^...//p' | xargs git diff
 }
 alias gd=myfunction

I can then do

>> git status
M main.cpp
M tipsy.cpp
M other.cpp
>> gd 2

And the output is git diff of the second file.

EDIT: I combined the two seds into one, because having two seperate ones was silly.

Answer 2

You can also use * placeholders as suggested in this answer. Usually you don't have to type the full name of the file like this

git diff -- **/name

Given that a short segment of the name, e.g. "na", is unique within the list of modified files, you can also do something like this:

git diff -- *na*

This way you don't have to count the entries to find out which number it is that you want to diff.