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tzury · 2020-07-26 17:45:06+00:00

`diff --color=auto` is nice, but `vimdiff` is superior

pfranz | karma 3661 | avg karma 1.93 · | 2022-05-17 00:29:57

Maybe my use-cases are too basic? I appreciate a good diff gui, but really like vimdiff more than almost all of the ones I've seen. For folders `diff -qr one/ two/` does everything I feel like I need. I love just filtering things with grep instead of trying to figure out however that tool wants to ignore specific changes.

dima55 | karma 1054 | avg karma 2.91 · | 2014-12-07 17:00:54+00:00

diff -y is side-by-side. As far as I know colordiff does per-line coloring, while icdiff seems to have finer granularity. This dude really should have patched colordiff, though. Or just used emacs.

e12e | karma 13838 | avg karma 1.49 · | 2020-07-06 08:37:46+00:00

This looks nice, but is it very different from gnu(?) diff --color=always --side-by-side?

userbinator | karma 78987 | avg karma 4.37 · | 2014-12-07 17:27:18+00:00

GNU diff has the -y option that already does side-by-side diffs; I'm a bit surprised that it doesn't do colouring already.

mixmastamyk | karma 12554 | avg karma 1.22 · | 2020-07-06 14:29:18+00:00

I've been using `alias diff=colordiff` for maybe twenty years. Looks like icdiff can highlight small changes without needing to call out the whole line. Is there anything else new this one brings?

wffurr | karma 5977 | avg karma 3.16 · | 2020-07-06 07:22:19

Wouldn't the syntax coloring interfere with the diff coloring? Is there an example of a tool that does both?

DelvarWorld | karma 0 | avg karma 0.0 · | 2013-03-05 22:14:53+00:00

I honestly prefer vim fugitive's diff function, as it splits with highlighted lines.

chjj | karma 1473 | avg karma 7.4 · | 2014-12-07 23:12:41+00:00

Not for a side-by-side diff, but I just use this for color diffs:

    cdiff() {
      diff -u "$@" \
        | sed 's/^\(@@ .* @@\)$/'$'\e[36m''\1'$'\e[m''/g' \
        | sed 's/^\(-.*\)$/'$'\e[31m''\1'$'\e[m''/g' \
        | sed 's/^\(+.*\)$/'$'\e[32m''\1'$'\e[m''/g' \
        | less -c -R
    }

Gonzih | karma 1088 | avg karma 3.82 · | 2014-12-07 18:13:32

Most of the time I use vimdiff to diff 2 files. Also allows you to push/pull differences from one buffer to another.

aequitas | karma 3431 | avg karma 3.59 · | 2015-06-30 07:46:32+00:00

Could you add a preview for diff mode? It always disappoints me how (even the default) themes make vimdiff as hard to read as possible.

oniony | karma 694 | avg karma 3.52 · | 2023-12-17 05:14:39

Interesting. I use `diff`.

ipozgaj | karma 405 | avg karma 9.64 · | 2020-07-26 18:41:07

There is also `colordiff` which works both as a standalone diff tool, but also as a colorizer filter for other diff tools. For example:

  diff -u a.txt b.txt | colordiff

Aissen | karma 14537 | avg karma 8.02 · | 2015-10-21 11:41:05+00:00

You can replace colordiff with vim's less tool (/usr/share/vim/vim74/macros/less.sh ) or vimpager (https://github.com/rkitover/vimpager).

icdiff is also nice to have a side-by-side colored diff (https://github.com/jeffkaufman/icdiff). And of course, you could use meld, vimdiff, kompare etc. with the same bash anonymous pipes indirection.

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e12e | karma 13838 | avg karma 1.49 · | 2020-07-07 21:35:32+00:00

I think, for changes within a line, wdiff would be the usual tool - but even if it's possible to pipe that through colordiff - I don't think there's a side-by-side mode for wdiff.

But yeah, I see that in-line highlighting of changes can be helpful sometimes :)

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anitil | karma 1427 | avg karma 1.62 · | 2022-05-16 22:59:32

I really like vimdiff, but I belive it doesn't do folder diffs (whereas beyond compare does this well)

cbr | karma 3404 | avg karma 3.04 · | 2014-12-07 17:08:52

colordiff is just a perl script to colorize diff's output. Patching it to add support for the kind of coloring I want to do here would be a lot of work.

As for using emacs, there are many cases when I want a stand-alone diff tool.

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RheingoldRiver | karma 1264 | avg karma 3.03 · | 2022-05-12 11:15:22

diffchecker is great! I have it bookmarked (by which I mean I type `di` and then down arrow), and I use it all the time.

pipe_connector | karma 71 | avg karma 1.97 · | 2023-06-22 00:02:12

You can still use a dedicated diff tool for these situations if they come up regularly. In my experience they are better than vim anyhow.

jefftk | karma 22506 | avg karma 4.92 · | 2020-07-07 12:49:11+00:00

Thanks! After playing with diff --color=always --side-by-side more, it looks like it colors inserted and deleted lines but not changed lines: https://www.jefftk.com/icdiff-vs-diff-color-always-side-by-s...

(And it still doesn't find changes within a line)

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