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' also honors
  82         this setting when reporting uncommitted changes. Setting it to
  83         'all' disables the submodule summary normally shown by 'git commit'
  84         and 'git status' when `status.submoduleSummary` is set unless it is
  85         overridden by using the --ignore-submodules command-line option.
  86         The 'git submodule' commands are not affected by this setting.
  87
  88 diff.mnemonicPrefix::
  89         If set, 'git diff' uses a prefix pair that is different from the
  90         standard "a/" and "b/" depending on what is being compared.  When
  91         this configuration is in effect, reverse diff output also swaps
  92         the order of the prefixes:
  93 `git diff`;;
  94         compares the (i)ndex and the (w)ork tree;
  95 `git diff HEAD`;;
  96          compares a (c)ommit and the (w)ork tree;
  97 `git diff --cached`;;
  98         compares a (c)ommit and the (i)ndex;
  99 `git diff HEAD:file1 file2`;;
 100         compares an (o)bject and a (w)ork tree entity;
 101 `git diff --no-index a b`;;
 102         compares two non-git things (1) and (2).
 103
 104 diff.noprefix::
 105         If set, 'git diff' does not show any source or destination prefix.
 106
 107 diff.orderFile::
 108         File indicating how to order files within a diff.
 109         See the '-O' option to linkgit:git-diff[1] for details.
 110         If `diff.orderFile` is a relative pathname, it is treated as
 111         relative to the top of the working tree.
 112
 113 diff.renameLimit::
 114         The number of files to consider when performing the copy/rename
 115         detection; equivalent to the 'git diff' option `-l`. This setting
 116         has no effect if rename detection is turned off.
 117
 118 diff.renames::
 119         Whether and how Git detects renames.  If set to "false",
 120         rename detection is disabled. If set to "true", basic rename
 121         detection is enabled.  If set to "copies" or "copy", Git will
 122         detect copies, as well.  Defaults to true.  Note that this
 123         affects only 'git diff' Porcelain like linkgit:git-diff[1] and
 124         linkgit:git-log[1], and not lower level commands such as
 125         linkgit:git-diff-files[1].
 126
 127 diff.suppressBlankEmpty::
 128         A boolean to inhibit the standard behavior of printing a space
 129         before each empty output line. Defaults to false.
 130
 131 diff.submodule::
 132         Specify the format in which differences in submodules are
 133         shown.  The "short" format just shows the names of the commits
 134         at the beginning and end of the range. The "log" format lists
 135         the commits in the range like linkgit:git-submodule[1] `summary`
 136         does. The "diff" format shows an inline diff of the changed
 137         contents of the submodule. Defaults to "short".
 138
 139 diff.wordRegex::
 140         A POSIX Extended Regular Expression used to determine what is a "word"
 141         when performing word-by-word difference calculations.  Character
 142         sequences that match the regular expression are "words", all other
 143         characters are *ignorable* whitespace.
 144
 145 diff.<driver>.command::
 146         The custom diff driver command.  See linkgit:gitattributes[5]
 147         for details.
 148
 149 diff.<driver>.xfuncname::
 150         The regular expression that the diff driver should use to
 151         recognize the hunk header.  A built-in pattern may also be used.
 152         See linkgit:gitattributes[5] for details.
 153
 154 diff.<driver>.binary::
 155         Set this option to true to make the diff driver treat files as
 156         binary.  See linkgit:gitattributes[5] for details.
 157
 158 diff.<driver>.textconv::
 159         The command that the diff driver should call to generate the
 160         text-converted version of a file.  The result of the
 161         conversion is used to generate a human-readable diff.  See
 162         linkgit:gitattributes[5] for details.
 163
 164 diff.<driver>.wordRegex::
 165         The regular expression that the diff driver should use to
 166         split words in a line.  See linkgit:gitattributes[5] for
 167         details.
 168
 169 diff.<driver>.cachetextconv::
 170         Set this option to true to make the diff driver cache the text
 171         conversion outputs.  See linkgit:gitattributes[5] for details.
 172
 173 diff.tool::
 174         Controls which diff tool is used by linkgit:git-difftool[1].
 175         This variable overrides the value configured in `merge.tool`.
 176         The list below shows the valid built-in values.
 177         Any other value is treated as a custom diff tool and requires
 178         that a corresponding difftool.<tool>.cmd variable is defined.
 179
 180 diff.guitool::
 181         Controls which diff tool is used by linkgit:git-difftool[1] when
 182         the -g/--gui flag is specified. This variable overrides the value
 183         configured in `merge.guitool`. The list below shows the valid
 184         built-in values. Any other value is treated as a custom diff tool
 185         and requires that a corresponding difftool.<guitool>.cmd variable
 186         is defined.
 187
 188 include::../mergetools-diff.txt[]
 189
 190 diff.indentHeuristic::
 191         Set this option to `true` to enable experimental heuristics
 192         that shift diff hunk boundaries to make patches easier to read.
 193
 194 diff.algorithm::
 195         Choose a diff algorithm.  The variants are as follows:
 196 +
 197 --
 198 `default`, `myers`;;
 199         The basic greedy diff algorithm. Currently, this is the default.
 200 `minimal`;;
 201         Spend extra time to make sure the smallest possible diff is
 202         produced.
 203 `patience`;;
 204         Use "patience diff" algorithm when generating patches.
 205 `histogram`;;
 206         This algorithm extends the patience algorithm to "support
 207         low-occurrence common elements".
 208 --
 209 +
 210
 211 diff.wsErrorHighlight::
 212         Highlight whitespace errors in the `context`, `old` or `new`
 213         lines of the diff.  Multiple values are separated by comma,
 214         `none` resets previous values, `default` reset the list to
 215         `new` and `all` is a shorthand for `old,new,context`.  The
 216         whitespace errors are colored with `color.diff.whitespace`.
 217         The command line option `--ws-error-highlight=<kind>`
 218         overrides this setting.
 219
 220 diff.colorMoved::
 221         If set to either a valid `<mode>` or a true value, moved lines
 222         in a diff are colored differently, for details of valid modes
 223         see '--color-moved' in linkgit:git-diff[1]. If simply set to
 224         true the default color mode will be used. When set to false,
 225         moved lines are not colored.
 226
 227 diff.colorMovedWS::
 228         When moved lines are colored using e.g. the `diff.colorMoved` setting,
 229         this option controls the `<mode>` how spaces are treated
 230         for details of valid modes see '--color-moved-ws' in linkgit:git-diff[1].