Documentation/config/diff.txt

   1 diff.autoRefreshIndex::
   2         When using 'git diff' to compare with work tree
   3         files, do not consider stat-only change as changed.
   4         Instead, silently run `git update-index --refresh` to
   5         update the cached stat information for paths whose
   6         contents in the work tree match the contents in the
   7         index.  This option defaults to true.  Note that this
   8         affects only 'git diff' Porcelain, and not lower level
   9         'diff' commands such as 'git diff-files'.
  10
  11 diff.dirstat::
  12         A comma separated list of `--dirstat` parameters specifying the
  13         default behavior of the `--dirstat` option to linkgit:git-diff[1]
  14         and friends. The defaults can be overridden on the command line
  15         (using `--dirstat=<param1,param2,...>`). The fallback defaults
  16         (when not changed by `diff.dirstat`) are `changes,noncumulative,3`.
  17         The following parameters are available:
  18 +
  19 --
  20 `changes`;;
  21         Compute the dirstat numbers by counting the lines that have been
  22         removed from the source, or added to the destination. This ignores
  23         the amount of pure code movements within a file.  In other words,
  24         rearranging lines in a file is not counted as much as other changes.
  25         This is the default behavior when no parameter is given.
  26 `lines`;;
  27         Compute the dirstat numbers by doing the regular line-based diff
  28         analysis, and summing the removed/added line counts. (For binary
  29         files, count 64-byte chunks instead, since binary files have no
  30         natural concept of lines). This is a more expensive `--dirstat`
  31         behavior than the `changes` behavior, but it does count rearranged
  32         lines within a file as much as other changes. The resulting output
  33         is consistent with what you get from the other `--*stat` options.
  34 `files`;;
  35         Compute the dirstat numbers by counting the number of files changed.
  36         Each changed file counts equally in the dirstat analysis. This is
  37         the computationally cheapest `--dirstat` behavior, since it does
  38         not have to look at the file contents at all.
  39 `cumulative`;;
  40         Count changes in a child directory for the parent directory as well.
  41         Note that when using `cumulative`, the sum of the percentages
  42         reported may exceed 100%. The default (non-cumulative) behavior can
  43         be specified with the `noncumulative` parameter.
  44 <limit>;;
  45         An integer parameter specifies a cut-off percent (3% by default).
  46         Directories contributing less than this percentage of the changes
  47         are not shown in the output.
  48 --
  49 +
  50 Example: The following will count changed files, while ignoring
  51 directories with less than 10% of the total amount of changed files,
  52 and accumulating child directory counts in the parent directories:
  53 `files,10,cumulative`.
  54
  55 diff.statGraphWidth::
  56         Limit the width of the graph part in --stat output. If set, applies
  57         to all commands generating --stat output except format-patch.
  58
  59 diff.context::
  60         Generate diffs with <n> lines of context instead of the default
  61         of 3. This value is overridden by the -U option.
  62
  63 diff.interHunkContext::
  64         Show the context between diff hunks, up to the specified number
  65         of lines, thereby fusing the hunks that are close to each other.
  66         This value serves as the default for the `--inter-hunk-context`
  67         command line option.
  68
  69 diff.external::
  70         If this config variable is set, diff generation is not
  71         performed using the internal diff machinery, but using the
  72         given command.  Can be overridden with the `GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF'
  73         environment variable.  The command is called with parameters
  74         as described under "git Diffs" in linkgit:git[1].  Note: if
  75         you want to use an external diff program only on a subset of
  76         your files, you might want to use linkgit:gitattributes[5] instead.
  77
  78 diff.ignoreSubmodules::
  79         Sets the default value of --ignore-submodules. Note that this
  80         affects only 'git diff' Porcelain, and not lower level 'diff'
  81         commands such as 'git diff-files'. 'git checkout'
  82         and 'git switch' also honor
  83         this setting when reporting uncommitted changes. Setting it to
  84         'all' disables the submodule summary normally shown by 'git commit'
  85         and 'git status' when `status.submoduleSummary` is set unless it is
  86         overridden by using the --ignore-submodules command-line option.
  87         The 'git submodule' commands are not affected by this setting.
  88
  89 diff.mnemonicPrefix::
  90         If set, 'git diff' uses a prefix pair that is different from the
  91         standard "a/" and "b/" depending on what is being compared.  When
  92         this configuration is in effect, reverse diff output also swaps
  93         the order of the prefixes:
  94 `git diff`;;
  95         compares the (i)ndex and the (w)ork tree;
  96 `git diff HEAD`;;
  97          compares a (c)ommit and the (w)ork tree;
  98 `git diff --cached`;;
  99         compares a (c)ommit and the (i)ndex;
 100 `git diff HEAD:file1 file2`;;
 101         compares an (o)bject and a (w)ork tree entity;
 102 `git diff --no-index a b`;;
 103         compares two non-git things (1) and (2).
 104
 105 diff.noprefix::
 106         If set, 'git diff' does not show any source or destination prefix.
 107
 108 diff.relative::
 109         If set to 'true', 'git diff' does not show changes outside of the directory
 110         and show pathnames relative to the current directory.
 111
 112 diff.orderFile::
 113         File indicating how to order files within a diff.
 114         See the '-O' option to linkgit:git-diff[1] for details.
 115         If `diff.orderFile` is a relative pathname, it is treated as
 116         relative to the top of the working tree.
 117
 118 diff.renameLimit::
 119         The number of files to consider when performing the copy/rename
 120         detection; equivalent to the 'git diff' option `-l`. This setting
 121         has no effect if rename detection is turned off.
 122
 123 diff.renames::
 124         Whether and how Git detects renames.  If set to "false",
 125         rename detection is disabled. If set to "true", basic rename
 126         detection is enabled.  If set to "copies" or "copy", Git will
 127         detect copies, as well.  Defaults to true.  Note that this
 128         affects only 'git diff' Porcelain like linkgit:git-diff[1] and
 129         linkgit:git-log[1], and not lower level commands such as
 130         linkgit:git-diff-files[1].
 131
 132 diff.suppressBlankEmpty::
 133         A boolean to inhibit the standard behavior of printing a space
 134         before each empty output line. Defaults to false.
 135
 136 diff.submodule::
 137         Specify the format in which differences in submodules are
 138         shown.  The "short" format just shows the names of the commits
 139         at the beginning and end of the range. The "log" format lists
 140         the commits in the range like linkgit:git-submodule[1] `summary`
 141         does. The "diff" format shows an inline diff of the changed
 142         contents of the submodule. Defaults to "short".
 143
 144 diff.wordRegex::
 145         A POSIX Extended Regular Expression used to determine what is a "word"
 146         when performing word-by-word difference calculations.  Character
 147         sequences that match the regular expression are "words", all other
 148         characters are *ignorable* whitespace.
 149
 150 diff.<driver>.command::
 151         The custom diff driver command.  See linkgit:gitattributes[5]
 152         for details.
 153
 154 diff.<driver>.xfuncname::
 155         The regular expression that the diff driver should use to
 156         recognize the hunk header.  A built-in pattern may also be used.
 157         See linkgit:gitattributes[5] for details.
 158
 159 diff.<driver>.binary::
 160         Set this option to true to make the diff driver treat files as
 161         binary.  See linkgit:gitattributes[5] for details.
 162
 163 diff.<driver>.textconv::
 164         The command that the diff driver should call to generate the
 165         text-converted version of a file.  The result of the
 166         conversion is used to generate a human-readable diff.  See
 167         linkgit:gitattributes[5] for details.
 168
 169 diff.<driver>.wordRegex::
 170         The regular expression that the diff driver should use to
 171         split words in a line.  See linkgit:gitattributes[5] for
 172         details.
 173
 174 diff.<driver>.cachetextconv::
 175         Set this option to true to make the diff driver cache the text
 176         conversion outputs.  See linkgit:gitattributes[5] for details.
 177
 178 diff.tool::
 179         Controls which diff tool is used by linkgit:git-difftool[1].
 180         This variable overrides the value configured in `merge.tool`.
 181         The list below shows the valid built-in values.
 182         Any other value is treated as a custom diff tool and requires
 183         that a corresponding difftool.<tool>.cmd variable is defined.
 184
 185 diff.guitool::
 186         Controls which diff tool is used by linkgit:git-difftool[1] when
 187         the -g/--gui flag is specified. This variable overrides the value
 188         configured in `merge.guitool`. The list below shows the valid
 189         built-in values. Any other value is treated as a custom diff tool
 190         and requires that a corresponding difftool.<guitool>.cmd variable
 191         is defined.
 192
 193 include::../mergetools-diff.txt[]
 194
 195 diff.indentHeuristic::
 196         Set this option to `false` to disable the default heuristics
 197         that shift diff hunk boundaries to make patches easier to read.
 198
 199 diff.algorithm::
 200         Choose a diff algorithm.  The variants are as follows:
 201 +
 202 --
 203 `default`, `myers`;;
 204         The basic greedy diff algorithm. Currently, this is the default.
 205 `minimal`;;
 206         Spend extra time to make sure the smallest possible diff is
 207         produced.
 208 `patience`;;
 209         Use "patience diff" algorithm when generating patches.
 210 `histogram`;;
 211         This algorithm extends the patience algorithm to "support
 212         low-occurrence common elements".
 213 --
 214 +
 215
 216 diff.wsErrorHighlight::
 217         Highlight whitespace errors in the `context`, `old` or `new`
 218         lines of the diff.  Multiple values are separated by comma,
 219         `none` resets previous values, `default` reset the list to
 220         `new` and `all` is a shorthand for `old,new,context`.  The
 221         whitespace errors are colored with `color.diff.whitespace`.
 222         The command line option `--ws-error-highlight=<kind>`
 223         overrides this setting.
 224
 225 diff.colorMoved::
 226         If set to either a valid `<mode>` or a true value, moved lines
 227         in a diff are colored differently, for details of valid modes
 228         see '--color-moved' in linkgit:git-diff[1]. If simply set to
 229         true the default color mode will be used. When set to false,
 230         moved lines are not colored.
 231
 232 diff.colorMovedWS::
 233         When moved lines are colored using e.g. the `diff.colorMoved` setting,
 234         this option controls the `<mode>` how spaces are treated
 235         for details of valid modes see '--color-moved-ws' in linkgit:git-diff[1].