NAME¶
git-difftool - Show changes using common diff tools
SYNOPSIS¶
git difftool [<options>] [<commit> [<commit>]] [--] [<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. See git-diff(1).
OPTIONS¶
-d, --dir-diff
Copy the modified files to a temporary location and
perform a directory diff on them. This mode never prompts before launching the
diff tool.
-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.
--rotate-to=<file>
Start showing the diff for the given path, the paths
before it will move to the end and output.
--skip-to=<file>
Start showing the diff for the given path, skipping all
the paths before it.
-t <tool>, --tool=<tool>
Use the diff tool specified by <tool>. Valid values
include emerge, kompare, meld, and vimdiff. Run
git difftool
--tool-help for the list of valid <tool> settings.
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. $MERGED is the name of the file which is being compared.
$BASE is provided for compatibility with custom merge tool commands
and has the same value as $MERGED.
--tool-help
Print a list of diff tools that may be used with
--tool.
--[no-]symlinks
git difftool's default behavior is to create
symlinks to the working tree when run in
--dir-diff mode and the
right-hand side of the comparison yields the same content as the file in the
working tree.
Specifying --no-symlinks instructs git difftool to
create copies instead. --no-symlinks is the default on Windows.
-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. Additionally, $BASE
is set in the environment.
-g, --[no-]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. This may be selected
automatically using the configuration variable difftool.guiDefault. The
--no-gui option can be used to override these settings. If
diff.guitool is not set, we will fallback in the order of
merge.guitool, diff.tool, merge.tool until a tool is
found.
--[no-]trust-exit-code
git-difftool invokes a diff tool individually on
each file. Errors reported by the diff tool are ignored by default. Use
--trust-exit-code to make
git-difftool exit when an invoked diff
tool returns a non-zero exit code.
git-difftool will forward the exit code of the invoked tool
when --trust-exit-code is used.
See git-diff(1) for the full list of supported options.
CONFIGURATION¶
git difftool falls back to git mergetool config
variables when the difftool equivalents have not been defined.
Everything above this line in this section isn’t included
from the git-config(1) documentation. The content that follows is the
same as what’s found there:
diff.tool
Controls which diff tool is used by
git-difftool(1). This variable overrides the value configured in
merge.tool. The list below shows the valid built-in values. Any other
value is treated as a custom diff tool and requires that a corresponding
difftool.<tool>.cmd variable is defined.
diff.guitool
Controls which diff tool is used by
git-difftool(1) when the -g/--gui flag is specified. This variable
overrides the value configured in
merge.guitool. The list below shows
the valid built-in values. Any other value is treated as a custom diff tool
and requires that a corresponding difftool.<guitool>.cmd variable is
defined.
difftool.<tool>.cmd
Specify the command to invoke the specified diff tool.
The specified command is evaluated in shell 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.
See the --tool=<tool> option in
git-difftool(1) for more details.
difftool.<tool>.path
Override the path for the given tool. This is useful in
case your tool is not in the PATH.
difftool.trustExitCode
Exit difftool if the invoked diff tool returns a non-zero
exit status.
See the --trust-exit-code option in git-difftool(1)
for more details.
difftool.prompt
Prompt before each invocation of the diff tool.
difftool.guiDefault
Set true to use the diff.guitool by default
(equivalent to specifying the --gui argument), or auto to select
diff.guitool or diff.tool depending on the presence of a
DISPLAY environment variable value. The default is false, where
the --gui argument must be provided explicitly for the
diff.guitool to be used.
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