How to see diff between working directory and staging index?

Question

We can see difference between repository and working directory with:

git diff 

We can see difference between repository and staging index with:

git diff --staged 

But how do we see difference between working directory and staging index?

Answer 1

Actually, git diff is between index and working tree. It just so happens that until you have staged changes to the index (with git add) that its contents will be identical to the HEAD commit.

git diff HEAD is between repo and working tree.

See 365git.tumblr.com post:

Answer 2

• git diff - Compare working area to index.
• git diff --staged - Compare stage area to repository.
• git diff HEAD - Compare working area to repository

To illustrate that, I changed a file with “Name Staged” text and than I added it (git add .). After that, I changed the file again, now I replaced the text to “Name Working Area” and than I run the follow commands:

Now you can see clearly how it works. Pretty cool, right?