title: Git: what does the number of +/- signs in diff / merge output mean?
body: <blockquote>
    <p><strong>Possible Duplicate:</strong><br>
    <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4965322/git-merge-what-does-this-mean">Git Merge: What does this mean?</a><br>
    <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7024848/git-diff-stat-explanation">Git diff --stat explanation</a>  </p>
  </blockquote>
  
  
  
  <p>Sorry for the stupid question, but i can't find a clear answer anywhere.</p>
  
  <p>When you merge two branches in git, you get an output like that :</p>
  
  <pre><code> some_file.txt  |  564 ++++++++++++++--
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I undestand that  <code>+</code> and <code>-</code> mean addition and deletion, but : </p>
  
  <ul>
  <li><p><strong>what does <em>the number of signs</em> represent ?</strong> 
  when you have few changes, each sign seem to represent a line, but when you have more signs, i can't get the logic of the representation</p></li>
  <li><p><strong>is it some sort of percentage of changes ?</strong> My guess is that the number of signs represents a relative amount of changes - but relative to what ? current file ? the whole merge ?</p></li>
  <li><p><strong>how is it calculated ?</strong> Is there any <em>official</em> source about this ? The most accurate answer i had on this by now is "this representation is not very precise"... i'm just curious</p></li>
  </ul>