Pipe git diff to git apply

Question

Why won't this command work ?

git diff | git --git-dir=/other/location/.git --work-tree=/other/location apply

The following works perfectly:

git diff > /tmp/my.patch
cd /other/location && git apply /tmp/my.patch

/other/location is a mirror of the current directory.

With the piped command I get

error: patch failed: myfile.php:1
error: myfile.php: patch does not apply

Did you try using `git diff | git .... apply -` to tell `git-apply` to use patch data from standard input? — Etan Reisner, Nov 12 '15 at 12:32

score 17 · Accepted Answer · edited Nov 12 '15 at 12:35

17

This works for me (git 2.6.3):

git diff | git -C /other/location apply

From man git:

-C <path>
       Run as if git was started in <path> instead of the current working
       directory. When multiple -C options are given, each subsequent 
       non-absolute -C <path> is interpreted relative to
       the preceding -C <path>.

edited Nov 12 '15 at 12:35

Andreas Louv

46,145
13
104
123

answered Nov 12 '15 at 11:37

Alexey Shein

7,342
1
25
38

That doesn't help unfortunately. It's trying to apply the patch so its not an issue of it seeing the characters over the pipe. – Alasdair Nov 12 '15 at 11:42
FWIW, the `git -C ` switch is fairly new, so this won't work with older versions like 1.8.3 which is installed with various operating systems. – Mark Edington May 19 '17 at 19:58

Pipe git diff to git apply

1 Answers1