Showing which files have changed between two revisions

Also keep in mind that git has cheap and easy branching. If I think a merge could be problematic I create a branch for the merge. So if master has the changes I want to merge in and ba is my branch that needs the code from master I might do the following:

git checkout ba
git checkout -b ba-merge
git merge master
.... review new code and fix conflicts....
git commit
git checkout ba
git merge ba-merge
git branch -d ba-merge
git merge master

End result is that I got to try out the merge on a throw-away branch before screwing with my branch. If I get my self tangled up I can just delete the ba-merge branch and start over.

To compare the current branch against main branch:

$ git diff --name-status main

To compare any two branches:

$ git diff --name-status firstbranch..yourBranchName

There is more options to git diff in the official documentation (and specifically --name-status option).

Try

$ git diff --stat --color master..branchName

This will give you more info about each change, while still using the same number of lines.

You can also flip the branches to get an even clearer picture of the difference if you were to merge the other way:

$ git diff --stat --color branchName..master