practical git commands to compare/diff between various branches

Question

I am still a bit weary of branches and comparing exactly what has changed. I don't like how things are just dumped to the console, especially when file sizes are large and many files have changed.

If I plug in perforces diff, will I get this:

1. a list of branches, and changes
2. the ability to diff between branches and all affected files are easily comparable to other branches/versions?

Answer 1

First, git by default uses pager when output is large enough, be it git log (or git log --graph) or git diff.

Second, you can use git difftool to run configured (or autodetected) graphical diff tool.

Answer 2

I frequently use

git diff master...HEAD > branchdiff.diff

That compares the head of the current branch against the master, and dumps it in a file I can look over instead of dumping it to the console