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GIT-DIFFTOOL(1) Git Manual GIT-DIFFTOOL(1)

NAME

git-difftool - Show changes using common diff tools

SYNOPSIS

git difftool [<options>] <commit>{0,2} [--] [<path>...]

DESCRIPTION

git difftool is a git command that allows you to compare and edit files between revisions using common diff tools. git difftool is a frontend to git diff and accepts the same options and arguments.

OPTIONS

-y, --no-prompt

Do not prompt before launching a diff tool.

--prompt

Prompt before each invocation of the diff tool. This is the default behaviour; the option is provided to override any configuration settings.

-t <tool>, --tool=<tool>

Use the diff tool specified by <tool>. Valid merge tools are: kdiff3, kompare, tkdiff, meld, xxdiff, emerge, vimdiff, gvimdiff, ecmerge, diffuse, opendiff, p4merge and araxis.

If a diff tool is not specified, git difftool will use the configuration variable diff.tool. If the configuration variable diff.tool is not set, git difftool will pick a suitable default.

You can explicitly provide a full path to the tool by setting the configuration variable difftool.<tool>.path. For example, you can configure the absolute path to kdiff3 by setting difftool.kdiff3.path. Otherwise, git difftool assumes the tool is available in PATH.

Instead of running one of the known diff tools, git difftool can be customized to run an alternative program by specifying the command line to invoke in a configuration variable difftool.<tool>.cmd.

When git difftool is invoked with this tool (either through the -t or --tool option or the diff.tool configuration variable) the configured command line will be invoked with the following variables available: $LOCAL is set to the name of the temporary file containing the contents of the diff pre-image and $REMOTE is set to the name of the temporary file containing the contents of the diff post-image. $BASE is provided for compatibility with custom merge tool commands and has the same value as $LOCAL.

-x <command>, --extcmd=<command>

Specify a custom command for viewing diffs. git-difftool ignores the configured defaults and runs $command $LOCAL $REMOTE when this option is specified.

-g, --gui

When git-difftool is invoked with the -g or --gui option the default diff tool will be read from the configured diff.guitool variable instead of diff.tool.

See git-diff(1) for the full list of supported options.

CONFIG VARIABLES

git difftool falls back to git mergetool config variables when the difftool equivalents have not been defined.

diff.tool

The default diff tool to use.

diff.guitool

The default diff tool to use when --gui is specified.

difftool.<tool>.path

Override the path for the given tool. This is useful in case your tool is not in the PATH.

difftool.<tool>.cmd

Specify the command to invoke the specified diff tool.

See the --tool=<tool> option above for more details.

difftool.prompt

Prompt before each invocation of the diff tool.

SEE ALSO

git-diff(1)

Show changes between commits, commit and working tree, etc

git-mergetool(1)

Run merge conflict resolution tools to resolve merge conflicts

git-config(1)

Get and set repository or global options

AUTHOR

Written by David Aguilar <davvid@gmail.com[1]>.

DOCUMENTATION

Documentation by David Aguilar and the git-list <git@vger.kernel.org[2]>.

GIT

Part of the git(1) suite

NOTES

1.
davvid@gmail.com
mailto:davvid@gmail.com
2.
git@vger.kernel.org
mailto:git@vger.kernel.org
02/03/2020 Git 1.7.1