title: Why is output from 'git diff' different than 'git show'?
body: <p>I expected <code>git show &lt;commit&gt;</code> and <code>git diff &lt;commit&gt;^ &lt;commit&gt;</code> to show the all changes that took place in a given commit, but I see that their list of changes differs. (See example below.) What's the correct understanding of their function, then?</p>
  
  <p>Yes, I've read the man pages</p>
  
  <p>git show</p>
  
  <pre><code>For commits it shows the log message and textual diff. It also presents the
     merge commit in a special format as produced by git diff-tree --cc.
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>git diff</p>
  
  <pre><code>git diff [--options] &lt;commit&gt; &lt;commit&gt; [--] [&lt;path&gt;...]
         This is to view the changes between two arbitrary &lt;commit&gt;.
  </code></pre>
  
  <hr>
  
  <h2>E.g.</h2>
  
  <pre><code>$ MY_COMMIT=7c95d118c9837f801f4e314732c593e25feba3b1
  </code></pre>
  
  <h3><code>git show</code> and its output:</h3>
  
  <pre><code>$ git show --name-only $MY_COMMIT
  commit 7c95d118c9837f801f4e314732c593e25feba3b1
  Merge: 5f308b4 9ef9bd7
  Author: Me &lt;quinesquines@gmail.com&gt;
  Date:   Thu Apr 23 14:14:58 2015 -0700
  
      Merge branch 'develop' of github.com:pic-development/dataraptor into develop
  
      Conflicts:
          app/controllers/application_controller.rb
          app/controllers/usage/staff_assignment_controller.rb
          app/views/crm/connections/_show.html.erb
          app/views/crm/task_builders/_task_builders.html.haml
          spec/controllers/contacts_controller_spec.rb
          spec/controllers/crm/connections_controller_spec.rb
  
  app/controllers/application_controller.rb
  app/controllers/usage/staff_assignment_controller.rb
  app/views/crm/connections/_show.html.erb
  </code></pre>
  
  <h3><code>git diff</code> and its output:</h3>
  
  <pre><code>$ git diff --name-only $MY_COMMIT^ $MY_COMMIT
  app/assets/javascripts/application/quoting/ng-new-quote.js
  app/assets/stylesheets/application-layout.css.scss
  app/assets/stylesheets/application.css
  app/controllers/application_controller.rb
  app/controllers/crm/connections_controller.rb
  app/controllers/usage/staff_assignment_controller.rb
  app/models/crm/connection.rb
  app/models/usage/permissions.rb
  app/views/crm/connections/_show.html.erb
  app/views/crm/task_builders/_task_builder.html.erb
  app/views/layouts/application.html.erb
  app/views/marketing/campaigns/_index.html.haml
  app/views/marketing/campaigns/_task_builders.html.haml
  app/views/shared/tab/_agency_management.html.erb
  app/views/shared/tab/_contracts.html.erb
  app/views/shared/tab/_help.html.erb
  app/views/shared/tab/_marketing.html.erb
  app/views/shared/tab/_my_account.html.erb
  app/views/shared/tab/_reporting.html.erb
  app/views/shared/tab/_sales_tools.html.erb
  app/views/shared/tab/_system_management.html.erb
  app/views/shared/tab/_underwriting_suitability.html.erb
  app/views/usage/agent_field_sets/_new_submission_option.html.erb
  app/views/usage/users/_personal.html.erb
  vendor/assets/stylesheets/bootstrap-combined.min.css
  vendor/assets/stylesheets/bootstrap.css
  vendor/assets/stylesheets/pixel-admin.css
  vendor/assets/stylesheets/themes.css
  </code></pre>