Getting file diff with Github API

Question

net project for which I need to detect and parse changes made to a specific single text file in a repository between different pull requests.

I've been successfully able to access the pull requests and the commits using the Github API but I don't know how to retrieve the lines that changed in the last commit?

Is this possible using the API? What would be the best approach? If not should I try to read the last two file versions and implement a differ algorithm locally? Thanks!

Schwern · Accepted Answer · 2016-11-03 04:59:45Z

23

A pull request contains a diff_url entry like

"diff_url": "https://github.com/octocat/Hello-World/pull/1347.diff"

You can do this for any commit. For example, to get the diff of commit 7fd1a60b01f91b3 on octocat's Hello-World it's https://github.com/octocat/Hello-World/commit/7fd1a60b01f91b314f59955a4e4d4e80d8edf11d.diff.

This also works for branches. Here's master on octocat's Hello-World. https://github.com/octocat/Hello-World/commit/master.diff.

The general form is:

https://github.com/<owner>/<repo>/commit/<commit>.diff

answered Nov 3, 2016 at 4:59

Schwern

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4 Comments

Shersh Over a year ago

For those who find this answer: I want to add that you need to specify the "Accept: application/vnd.github.v3.diff" header (patch also works). Source: github.community/t5/GitHub-API-Development-and/…

Dustin Oprea Over a year ago

Only works for public repositories. Does not support authentication.

mwilson Over a year ago

I just had to pass the header (as @Shersh mentioned). Didn't have to append the .diff. I'm also hitting a /commits endpoint and not /commit. So maybe things have changed since 2016.

Michael McGreal Over a year ago

I was able to get the diff string in node using the @oktokit/core package, and from a private repo, like this: const oktokit = new Octokit({ auth: 'optionalToken', }); oktokit.request( 'GET /repos/{owner}/{repo}/commits', { owner: 'repoOwner', repo: 'repoTitle', headers: { Accept: 'application/vnd.github.diff', }, } ) Latest github docs on the vnd header type: docs.github.com/en/rest/overview/…

Dustin Oprea · Accepted Answer · 2022-02-28 10:27:41Z

3

For private repositories:

curl -H "Accept: application/vnd.github.v3.diff" https://<personal access token>:[email protected]/repos/<org>/<repo>/pulls/<pull request>

Also works with the normal cURL -u parameter.

See: https://docs.github.com/en/rest/reference/pulls#get-a-pull-request

answered Feb 28, 2022 at 10:27

Dustin Oprea

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Comments

JBSnorro · Accepted Answer · 2022-12-14 10:08:59Z

3

The crux is in the requested media type. You can pass the Accept header with value

application/vnd.github.diff

see documentation. For full reference, a GET request with the above and Authorization header to https://api.github.com/repos/{orgName}/{repoName}/pulls/{prId} does the trick.

answered Dec 14, 2022 at 10:08

JBSnorro

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1 Comment

j4ys0n Over a year ago

indeed - thanks for this. just the PR url, normal api auth and this header.

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