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