Git Diff Action

This GitHub Action performs a git diff and outputs the files that changed in a Pull Request, based on specified patterns.

Inputs

patterns

Required: A string containing file patterns to include or exclude in the diff. Patterns should be separated by commas.

• Use * as a wildcard for any number of characters.
• Use ** for recursive directory matching.
• Prefix patterns with ! to exclude files.

Examples:

• *.rs: All Rust files
• src/**/*: All files within the src directory and its subdirectories
• !README.md: Exclude the README.md file

Patterns could be a single line or multiline string.

patterns: |
  *.rs
  src/**/*
  !README.md

patterns: '*.rs,src/**/*,!README.md'

Outputs

DIFF_FILES

A list of files that changed in the PR, matching the specified patterns.

DIFF_COUNT

The number of files that changed in the PR, matching the specified patterns.

Example usage

name: Git Diff Check

on:
  pull_request:
    branches: [ main ]

jobs:
  check_diff:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v4

    - name: Get changed files
      id: diff
      uses: LuisLiraC/git-diff@master # Use the latest version. You can also use a specific version like v1.0.0
      with:
        patterns: '*.rs,src/**/*,!README.md'

    - name: Get diff outputs
      run: |
        echo "Files: ${{ steps.diff.outputs.DIFF_FILES }}"
        echo "Count: ${{ steps.diff.outputs.DIFF_COUNT }}"

Warning

At this moment it only works with the pull_request event. It uses the GITHUB_BASE_REF environment variable to get the base branch of the PR and this it is only available in the pull_request event.