Comparing commits

Compare branches, tags, commits, forks, and dates to analyze changes and track repository history effectively.

In this article

To compare different versions of your repository, append /compare to your repository's path. The compare page uses base as the starting point and compare as the endpoint.

Comparing branches

Use the Compare view to compare branches or start a pull request.

  1. Navigate to https://github.com/OWNER/REPOSITORY/compare.
  2. Use the base dropdown menu to select the branch you want to compare against.
  3. Use the compare dropdown menu to select the branch that contains the changes.
  4. Review the commits and changed files in the comparison.

See Branches.

Comparing tags

Compare release tags to review changes between releases. See Comparing releases.

  1. Navigate to https://github.com/OWNER/REPOSITORY/compare.
  2. Select the older tag from the base dropdown menu.
  3. Select the newer tag from the compare dropdown menu.
  4. Review the commits and changed files in the comparison.

Note

If a branch and a tag have the same name, the branch is used. To compare the tag, add tags/ before the tag name.

Comparing commits

You can compare two commits or Git Object IDs (OIDs) directly by editing the compare URL.

  1. Navigate to the repository's compare page.
  2. In the URL, enter the older commit as the base and the newer commit as the compare point.

For example, this URL uses the shortened SHA codes to compare commits f75c570 and 3391dcc: https://github.com/github-linguist/linguist/compare/f75c570..3391dcc.

See Branches.

Comparing across forks

Use owner-qualified branch names to compare branches across forks.

  1. Navigate to the base repository's compare page.
  2. Click compare across forks if the option is shown.
  3. Select the base repository and branch.
  4. Select the head fork and compare branch.

You can also edit the URL directly. For example, use octocat:main as base and octo-org:main as compare to compare the main branches of repositories owned by octocat and octo-org. See Forks.

Comparisons across commits

To compare a commit with earlier commits, use Git's ^ or ~N notation in the compare URL. For example, 96d29b7~5...96d29b7 compares 96d29b7 with the commit five commits before it.

Differences between commit views

The repository commit history and a single file's commit history can show different results. A file's history shows commits that affected that file, while the repository history shows the broader branch history. If a file's history does not include the commit you need, use the repository's commits page instead.

See the "History Simplification" section of the git log documentation.

Further reading