How to Get a GitHub Pull Request's Correct Diff

Finding the Correct Diff with Git Commands

Git and Bash Script

#!/bin/bash
# Find the commit SHA from two months ago
# and get the diff for a pull request
COMMIT_DATE=$(date -d "2 months ago" '+%Y-%m-%d')
START_COMMIT=$(git rev-list -n 1 --before="$COMMIT_DATE" main)
# Replace 'main' with the appropriate branch if necessary
END_COMMIT=$(git rev-parse HEAD)
echo "Start commit: $START_COMMIT"
echo "End commit: $END_COMMIT"
git diff $START_COMMIT $END_COMMIT > pr_diff.patch

GitHub API Commit Fetching

GitHub API with Python Script

import requests
import datetime
# Set up your GitHub token and repo details
GITHUB_TOKEN = 'your_github_token'
REPO_OWNER = 'repo_owner'
REPO_NAME = 'repo_name'
# Calculate the date two months ago
two_months_ago = datetime.datetime.now() - datetime.timedelta(days=60)
headers = {'Authorization': f'token {GITHUB_TOKEN}'}
url = f'https://api.github.com/repos/{REPO_OWNER}/{REPO_NAME}/commits?since={two_months_ago.isoformat()}'
response = requests.get(url, headers=headers)
commits = response.json()
if commits:
    start_commit = commits[-1]['sha']
    end_commit = commits[0]['sha']
    print(f"Start commit: {start_commit}")
    print(f"End commit: {end_commit}")

Utilizing Git Log to Get Commit SHA

Manual Git Command Line

# Open your terminal and navigate to the local repository
cd /path/to/your/repo
# Run git log and search for the commit SHA
git log --since="2 months ago" --pretty=format:"%h %ad %s" --date=short
# Note the commit SHA that you need
START_COMMIT=<your_start_commit_sha>
END_COMMIT=$(git rev-parse HEAD)
# Get the diff for the pull request
git diff $START_COMMIT $END_COMMIT > pr_diff.patch

Frequently Asked Questions and Answers for Handling Pull Requests in Git

1. How do I locate a particular commit SHA that was made months ago?
2. To find the commit SHA, use the git reflog command or git rev-list with a date filter.
3. How can I create a diff between two commits the best way possible?
4. Utilize the git diff command in conjunction with the two commits' SHAs.
5. How can I use the GitHub API to retrieve commits from a particular time period?
6. Utilize the GitHub API by providing a date parameter formatted in Python with datetime.isoformat.
7. What does the command git rev-parse mean?
8. It transforms commit references or branch names into SHA-1 hash values.
9. How can commit logs be manually inspected?
10. To examine commit history, run git log with the necessary filters, such as --since.
11. Is it possible for me to find commit SHAs automatically?
12. Yes, automating the retrieval and processing of commit data using scripts written in Python or Bash.
13. What is the benefit of datetime.timedelta for scripting?
14. It computes date differences, which is helpful in figuring out dates in relation to the present.
15. What is the purpose of Python's requests.get function?
16. It retrieves data from APIs such as GitHub by submitting HTTP GET requests.
17. How may a diff output be stored in a file?
18. Redirect the output of git diff to a file using the > operator in your command.