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Compare two commits

GET /repos/{owner}/{repo}/compare/{basehead}
Copy endpoint
https://api.github.com

Compares two commits against one another. You can compare refs (branches or tags) and commit SHAs in the same repository, or you can compare refs and commit SHAs that exist in different repositories within the same repository network, including fork branches. For more information about how to view a repository's network, see "Understanding connections between repositories."

This endpoint is equivalent to running the git log BASE..HEAD command, but it returns commits in a different order. The git log BASE..HEAD command returns commits in reverse chronological order, whereas the API returns commits in chronological order.

This endpoint supports the following custom media types. For more information, see "Media types."

  • application/vnd.github.diff: Returns the diff of the commit.
  • application/vnd.github.patch: Returns the patch of the commit. Diffs with binary data will have no patch property.

The API response includes details about the files that were changed between the two commits. This includes the status of the change (if a file was added, removed, modified, or renamed), and details of the change itself. For example, files with a renamed status have a previous_filename field showing the previous filename of the file, and files with a modified status have a patch field showing the changes made to the file.

When calling this endpoint without any paging parameter (per_page or page), the returned list is limited to 250 commits, and the last commit in the list is the most recent of the entire comparison.

Working with large comparisons

To process a response with a large number of commits, use a query parameter (per_page or page) to paginate the results. When using pagination:

  • The list of changed files is only shown on the first page of results, and it includes up to 300 changed files for the entire comparison.
  • The results are returned in chronological order, but the last commit in the returned list may not be the most recent one in the entire set if there are more pages of results.

For more information on working with pagination, see "Using pagination in the REST API."

Signature verification object

The response will include a verification object that describes the result of verifying the commit's signature. The verification object includes the following fields:

Name Type Description
verified boolean Indicates whether GitHub considers the signature in this commit to be verified.
reason string The reason for verified value. Possible values and their meanings are enumerated in table below.
signature string The signature that was extracted from the commit.
payload string The value that was signed.
verified_at string The date the signature was verified by GitHub.

These are the possible values for reason in the verification object:

Value Description
expired_key The key that made the signature is expired.
not_signing_key The "signing" flag is not among the usage flags in the GPG key that made the signature.
gpgverify_error There was an error communicating with the signature verification service.
gpgverify_unavailable The signature verification service is currently unavailable.
unsigned The object does not include a signature.
unknown_signature_type A non-PGP signature was found in the commit.
no_user No user was associated with the committer email address in the commit.
unverified_email The committer email address in the commit was associated with a user, but the email address is not verified on their account.
bad_email The committer email address in the commit is not included in the identities of the PGP key that made the signature.
unknown_key The key that made the signature has not been registered with any user's account.
malformed_signature There was an error parsing the signature.
invalid The signature could not be cryptographically verified using the key whose key-id was found in the signature.
valid None of the above errors applied, so the signature is considered to be verified.

Parameters

path Path Parameters

Name Type
owner required

The account owner of the repository. The name is not case sensitive.
string
repo required

The name of the repository without the .git extension. The name is not case sensitive.
string
basehead required

The base branch and head branch to compare. This parameter expects the format BASE...HEAD. Both must be branch names in repo. To compare with a branch that exists in a different repository in the same network as repo, the basehead parameter expects the format USERNAME:BASE...USERNAME:HEAD.
string

query Query Parameters

Name Type
page

The page number of the results to fetch. For more information, see "Using pagination in the REST API."
number
per_page

The number of results per page (max 100). For more information, see "Using pagination in the REST API."
number

Responses

200 application/json

Response

interface CommitComparison {
url: string;
html_url: string;
permalink_url: string;
diff_url: string;
patch_url: string;
base_commit: Commit

Commit

interface Commit {
url: string;
sha: string;
node_id: string;
html_url: string;
comments_url: string;
commit: {
url: string;
author: GitUser | null;
committer: GitUser | null;
message: string;
comment_count: number;
tree: { ... };
verification?: Verification;
};
author: SimpleUser & null | SimpleUser & {} | EmptyObject & null | EmptyObject & {};
committer: SimpleUser & null | SimpleUser & {} | EmptyObject & null | EmptyObject & {};
parents: { sha: string;url: string;html_url?: string; }[];
stats?: { additions?: number;deletions?: number;total?: number; };
files?: DiffEntry[];
}
;
merge_base_commit: Commit

Commit

interface Commit {
url: string;
sha: string;
node_id: string;
html_url: string;
comments_url: string;
commit: {
url: string;
author: GitUser | null;
committer: GitUser | null;
message: string;
comment_count: number;
tree: { ... };
verification?: Verification;
};
author: SimpleUser & null | SimpleUser & {} | EmptyObject & null | EmptyObject & {};
committer: SimpleUser & null | SimpleUser & {} | EmptyObject & null | EmptyObject & {};
parents: { sha: string;url: string;html_url?: string; }[];
stats?: { additions?: number;deletions?: number;total?: number; };
files?: DiffEntry[];
}
;
status: "diverged" | "ahead" | "behind" | "identical";
ahead_by: number;
behind_by: number;
total_commits: number;
commits: Commit

Commit

interface Commit {
url: string;
sha: string;
node_id: string;
html_url: string;
comments_url: string;
commit: {
url: string;
author: GitUser | null;
committer: GitUser | null;
message: string;
comment_count: number;
tree: { ... };
verification?: Verification;
};
author: SimpleUser & null | SimpleUser & {} | EmptyObject & null | EmptyObject & {};
committer: SimpleUser & null | SimpleUser & {} | EmptyObject & null | EmptyObject & {};
parents: { sha: string;url: string;html_url?: string; }[];
stats?: { additions?: number;deletions?: number;total?: number; };
files?: DiffEntry[];
}
[];
files?: DiffEntry

Diff Entry

interface DiffEntry {
sha: string | null;
filename: string;
status: "added" | "removed" | "modified" | "renamed" | "copied" | "changed" | "unchanged";
additions: number;
deletions: number;
changes: number;
blob_url: string;
raw_url: string;
contents_url: string;
patch?: string;
previous_filename?: string;
}
[];
}

Client Errors

404 application/json

Resource not found

interface BasicError {
message?: string;
documentation_url?: string;
url?: string;
status?: string;
}

Server Errors

500 application/json

Internal Error

interface BasicError {
message?: string;
documentation_url?: string;
url?: string;
status?: string;
}
503 application/json

Service unavailable

{ code?: string;message?: string;documentation_url?: string; }