Documentation / config / diff.txton commit diff: 'diff.indentHeuristic' is no longer experimental (64e5e1f)
   1diff.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
  11diff.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+
  50Example: The following will count changed files, while ignoring
  51directories with less than 10% of the total amount of changed files,
  52and accumulating child directory counts in the parent directories:
  53`files,10,cumulative`.
  54
  55diff.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
  59diff.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
  63diff.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
  69diff.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
  78diff.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
  88diff.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
 104diff.noprefix::
 105        If set, 'git diff' does not show any source or destination prefix.
 106
 107diff.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
 113diff.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
 118diff.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
 127diff.suppressBlankEmpty::
 128        A boolean to inhibit the standard behavior of printing a space
 129        before each empty output line. Defaults to false.
 130
 131diff.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
 139diff.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
 145diff.<driver>.command::
 146        The custom diff driver command.  See linkgit:gitattributes[5]
 147        for details.
 148
 149diff.<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
 154diff.<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
 158diff.<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
 164diff.<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
 169diff.<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
 173diff.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
 180diff.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
 188include::../mergetools-diff.txt[]
 189
 190diff.indentHeuristic::
 191        Set this option to `false` to disable the default heuristics
 192        that shift diff hunk boundaries to make patches easier to read.
 193
 194diff.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
 211diff.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
 220diff.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
 227diff.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].