How to compare two different commits on the same branch in github?

Question

Comparing histories on the same branch is very confusing for me on GitHub. I struggle with this regularly:

If I use compare/master in the URL after the

Answer 1

to see the difference between branches or tags

(branches if no pull request has been made)

• https://github.com/PyCQA/mccabe/compare/bug/39...master (diff between two branches bug/39and master)
• https://github.com/PyCQA/mccabe/compare/0.6.0...0.6.1 (diff between two tags)
• https://github.com/PyCQA/mccabe/compare/0.6.1...master (diff between tag and master)

Notes:

• (if a pull request has been made you can see the changes inside the PR, no longer via the compare url)

• You can use the dropdowns to select different branches or tags:

• take care of the order, eg. https://github.com/PyCQA/mccabe/compare/master...0.6.1 will give no results

• you can choose between 2-dot (..) or 3-dot (...) notation

to see the difference between commits:

• https://github.com/PyCQA/mccabe/compare/55942cb...HEAD

• https://github.com/PyCQA/mccabe/compare/55942cb...e92e9e7