git: diff between file in local repo and origin

Question

I want to find the differences between a file I have in my local repo vs what is in the origin master.

I know that there is git diff, howev

Answer 1

To view the differences going from the remote file to the local file:

git diff remotename/branchname:remote/path/file1.txt local/path/file1.txt

To view the differences in the other direction:

git diff HEAD:local/path/file1.txt remotename/branchname:remote/path/file1.txt

Basically you can diff any two files anywhere using this notation:

git diff ref1:path/to/file1 ref2:path/to/file2

As usual, ref1 and ref2 could be branch names, remotename/branchname, commit SHAs, etc.