git diff无法处理跟踪文件中的未暂存更改

Question

I have two machines, one with git 1.7.0.4, and the other with 1.7.12.4 (Apple Git-37).

I've modified a file in the tree on each machine (the same change, the same file, but located on two different computers) but have not staged it yet on either.

# On branch master
# Changes not staged for commit:
#   (use "git add <file>..." to update what will be committed)
#   (use "git checkout -- <file>..." to discard changes in working directory)
#
#   modified:   Rakefile
#
# Untracked files:
#   (use "git add <file>..." to include in what will be committed)
#
#   Hs-At_AND/

(The displays are slightly different for the two versions of git. I'm only showing the 1.7.12.4 display.)

On 1.7.12.4 (on my Mac), git diff Rakefile shows me the changes in Rakefile relative to the repo version.

But on the other, git diff Rakefile does nothing. There's no output, no error message.

There are other similar- looking questions on StackOverflow (eg, git diff gives no output ), but these all seem to be asking about untracked files. My question is regarding tracked-but-not-yet-staged files.

Obviously I'm not doing anything wrong here. What's wrong with my installation, then? Is there something I can change in my .gitconfig ?

Answer 1

Since it's on two different machines, you are possibly running the command on two different physical devices, only one of which contains the changed file.

File changes are machine-local (unless you use a shared/remote file system) until you have committed and pushed changes. Other machines won't see the local changes until they have fetched/pulled the updated repo.