Documentation / git-difftool.txton commit fmt-merge-msg: discard needless merge parents (5802f81)
   1git-difftool(1)
   2===============
   3
   4NAME
   5----
   6git-difftool - Show changes using common diff tools
   7
   8SYNOPSIS
   9--------
  10[verse]
  11'git difftool' [<options>] [<commit> [<commit>]] [--] [<path>...]
  12
  13DESCRIPTION
  14-----------
  15'git difftool' is a git command that allows you to compare and edit files
  16between revisions using common diff tools.  'git difftool' is a frontend
  17to 'git diff' and accepts the same options and arguments. See
  18linkgit:git-diff[1].
  19
  20OPTIONS
  21-------
  22-y::
  23--no-prompt::
  24        Do not prompt before launching a diff tool.
  25
  26--prompt::
  27        Prompt before each invocation of the diff tool.
  28        This is the default behaviour; the option is provided to
  29        override any configuration settings.
  30
  31-t <tool>::
  32--tool=<tool>::
  33        Use the diff tool specified by <tool>.
  34        Valid diff tools are:
  35        araxis, bc3, diffuse, emerge, ecmerge, gvimdiff, kdiff3,
  36        kompare, meld, opendiff, p4merge, tkdiff, vimdiff and xxdiff.
  37+
  38If a diff tool is not specified, 'git difftool'
  39will use the configuration variable `diff.tool`.  If the
  40configuration variable `diff.tool` is not set, 'git difftool'
  41will pick a suitable default.
  42+
  43You can explicitly provide a full path to the tool by setting the
  44configuration variable `difftool.<tool>.path`. For example, you
  45can configure the absolute path to kdiff3 by setting
  46`difftool.kdiff3.path`. Otherwise, 'git difftool' assumes the
  47tool is available in PATH.
  48+
  49Instead of running one of the known diff tools,
  50'git difftool' can be customized to run an alternative program
  51by specifying the command line to invoke in a configuration
  52variable `difftool.<tool>.cmd`.
  53+
  54When 'git difftool' is invoked with this tool (either through the
  55`-t` or `--tool` option or the `diff.tool` configuration variable)
  56the configured command line will be invoked with the following
  57variables available: `$LOCAL` is set to the name of the temporary
  58file containing the contents of the diff pre-image and `$REMOTE`
  59is set to the name of the temporary file containing the contents
  60of the diff post-image.  `$MERGED` is the name of the file which is
  61being compared. `$BASE` is provided for compatibility
  62with custom merge tool commands and has the same value as `$MERGED`.
  63
  64-x <command>::
  65--extcmd=<command>::
  66        Specify a custom command for viewing diffs.
  67        'git-difftool' ignores the configured defaults and runs
  68        `$command $LOCAL $REMOTE` when this option is specified.
  69        Additionally, `$BASE` is set in the environment.
  70
  71-g::
  72--gui::
  73        When 'git-difftool' is invoked with the `-g` or `--gui` option
  74        the default diff tool will be read from the configured
  75        `diff.guitool` variable instead of `diff.tool`.
  76
  77See linkgit:git-diff[1] for the full list of supported options.
  78
  79CONFIG VARIABLES
  80----------------
  81'git difftool' falls back to 'git mergetool' config variables when the
  82difftool equivalents have not been defined.
  83
  84diff.tool::
  85        The default diff tool to use.
  86
  87diff.guitool::
  88        The default diff tool to use when `--gui` is specified.
  89
  90difftool.<tool>.path::
  91        Override the path for the given tool.  This is useful in case
  92        your tool is not in the PATH.
  93
  94difftool.<tool>.cmd::
  95        Specify the command to invoke the specified diff tool.
  96+
  97See the `--tool=<tool>` option above for more details.
  98
  99difftool.prompt::
 100        Prompt before each invocation of the diff tool.
 101
 102SEE ALSO
 103--------
 104linkgit:git-diff[1]::
 105         Show changes between commits, commit and working tree, etc
 106
 107linkgit:git-mergetool[1]::
 108        Run merge conflict resolution tools to resolve merge conflicts
 109
 110linkgit:git-config[1]::
 111         Get and set repository or global options
 112
 113GIT
 114---
 115Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite