Help:Diff/en

A diff (short for difference) displays the changes between two revisions of a page. Diffs are a fundamental component of navigation and content moderation on MediaWiki wikis.

The platforms in the wiki ecosystem have several versions of a diff depending on which device and installation of MediaWiki is being used.

When and why to use a diff?
The main reason to use a diff is to review a specific change to a page made by yourself or someone else. There are many possible reasons to do this:


 * To help find instances of vandalism
 * To determine when a section, sentence, or word was added or removed
 * To determine which editor made a given change
 * As a starting point to further actions as the diff contains Special:MyLanguage/Help:Editing pages, Special:MyLanguage/Manual:Reverts, and other actions as well as links to the editor's user and talk pages.

How to navigate to view a diff?
The most common way to view a diff is through the "Revision history". This is accessible via the "" tab. From there, you can use "" to view diffs of single revisions, or use the radio buttons and the "" button to view diffs across multiple revisions.

Most special pages that list changes will usually include links to diffs, such as:


 * Special:RecentChanges
 * Special:Watchlist
 * Special:Contributions
 * Special:Relatedchanges

Another way to view a diff is with the Special:Diff page. To use this, you must know the IDs of the revisions you want to compare. Revision IDs can be retrieved by looking at the  portion of a diff URL, where   is the diff ID. Additionally, you can use the value of the  parameter to get the diff of that revision against the previous one.

Components to a diff
Below is a visual representation of the important components of a diff page which you will see when viewing the difference between two published changes.



This example shows the top of the diff page (some of the links are dummy links). The older version is shown on the left, the newer version on the right.



Unchanged text is dark grey on light grey (only parts before and after changed text are shown).

Moved text
Identical text that has moved from one place to another are usually represented as added and removed text. On MediaWiki installations using, there may be an arrow icon more clearly indicating where the moved text went to.

Added text
Lines containing added text have a plus icon (+) before them. The added words and characters are highlighted and in bold.

Removed text
Lines containing removed text have a minus icon (−) before them. The removed words and characters are highlighted and in bold.

Replaced text
We can see what has been replaced with new content when there's a + icon and a − icon next to the phrase where the change happened.

Paragraphs which have changed are black on white, with an orange border on the old revision side and a blue border on the new version side.

Inserted and removed text is highlighted with the border color and in bold. Where whole paragraphs have been removed or inserted, no highlighting or bolding is applied and the other side is blank.

Linking to a diff
Diffs can be linked to by copying the URL while viewing the diff — this URL has two parameters,  and.

Linking to a diff from outside a wiki can be done by using the full URL, for example:



The diff special page at Special:Diff makes it easier to create shorter URLs which redirect to diffs.

From within a wiki, these links can take the following forms:


 * → Special:Diff/1242287 – Shows the diff to the previous revision of the same page.
 * → Special:Diff/1242287/prev – Shows the diff to the previous revision of the same page.
 * → Special:Diff/1242287/next – Shows the diff to the next revision of the same page.
 * → Special:Diff/1242287/cur – Shows the diff to the current revision of the same page.
 * → Special:Diff/1242286/1242287 – Shows the diff between the specified revisions of the same page which may also be reversed, e.g.  → Special:Diff/1242287/1242286, though one should avoid this.

These links may be used in the edit summary as well as adapted like any other internal links, e.g..

For example, the full URL  could also be written as.

By default, the later revision of the page is displayed in full below the diff — this can be turned off via a preferences ("") or by setting  in the URL. Links to diffs without the page text can be created:



Inline diffs
Since MediaWiki 1.35, an inline diff (also known as a unified diff) is available. As of 2022 this is only available with the engine. Inline diffs can be accessed by passing the  parameter in the URL (example). There are plans to expose a toggle to switch between inline and two-column in the interface (T240608).

How to report bugs?
Bugs should be filed on Phabricator under the tag.

User Preferences
The following user preferences are available in the "" section of the "" preferences tab:


 * Toggle the display of the page text below the diff. This text is the later of the two revisions of the page.
 * Toggle the display of the page text below the diff. This text is the later of the two revisions of the page.


 * Whether to show the diff of the rolled back revision after a rollback.
 * Whether to show the diff of the rolled back revision after a rollback.

Some extensions also add their own preferences related to diffs.