How to view diff of a forked github project

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Online solution:

get /repos/{owner}/{repo}/compare/{base}...{head}

The “compare two commits” API does support multiple repositories:

Both :base and :head must be branch names in :repo.
To compare branches across other repositories in the same network as :repo, use the format <USERNAME>:branch.

Example:

https://api.github.com/repos/octocat/hello-world/compare/master…abejpn:master

Or with a GitHub URL:

https://github.com/octocat/Hello-World/compare/master…abejpn:master

Original answer 2010:

  • Add the original GitHub repo (the one you have forked) as a remote one on your local repo.
    (git remote add mainRepo github_url)
  • git fetch mainRepo to get the latest changes from that original “mainRepo”.
  • git log HEAD..mainRepo/master will show you all your changes between the latest on mainRepo master branch and your current branch.
    git diff HEAD..mainRepo/master would display it in diff format.

In learn.GitHub:

git diff mainRepo/master...HEAD

would list all your changes since you have forked from mainRepo:

This will not compare the last ‘master’ branch snapshot and the last ‘dev’ snapshot – it will instead compare the common ancestor of both with ‘dev’. That will tell you what changed since the branch point.

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