Prevent /dev/null/ from dumping when running git diff

Question

When I try to dump differences between two folders with

git diff --no-index --name-only folder1 folder2 > diff.txt

I encounter a lot of /dev/null strings. It shows the removed folders as far as I know. But I don't need those in my file. How can I prevent it from dumping?

Answer 1

Check if you can add the --diff-filter=d option, to exclude deleted paths

git diff --no-index --name-only --diff-filter=d folder1 folder2

Answer 2

You can use the option -D aka --irreversible-delete (manual page). It will not show the content of deleted files, but still show that the file was deleted.