Git Merge: What do the pluses mean?

Question

I ran \"git merge\" from Terminal on Mac OS X to merge a branch into my master and receive output that looks like:

 spec/models/user_spec.rb    57 ++++++++++         


        

Answer 1

57 lines changed. The pluses are graphical indications of the number of lines changed, kind of like a bar chart. They make more sense when you have changed several files, as they give a quick way to see the relative amount of lines changed per file.

I've found that if you only make a few changes, each plus corresponds to one line. As you make more, it scales them back.

It also shows minuses for line deletions.

If you made 28 (57/2) line changes in another file, you would see a string of pluses half as long next to it.