Documentation / config / diff.txton commit First batch after Git 2.23 (745f681)
   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'
  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
  89diff.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
 105diff.noprefix::
 106        If set, 'git diff' does not show any source or destination prefix.
 107
 108diff.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
 114diff.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
 119diff.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
 128diff.suppressBlankEmpty::
 129        A boolean to inhibit the standard behavior of printing a space
 130        before each empty output line. Defaults to false.
 131
 132diff.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
 140diff.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
 146diff.<driver>.command::
 147        The custom diff driver command.  See linkgit:gitattributes[5]
 148        for details.
 149
 150diff.<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
 155diff.<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
 159diff.<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
 165diff.<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
 170diff.<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
 174diff.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
 181diff.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
 189include::../mergetools-diff.txt[]
 190
 191diff.indentHeuristic::
 192        Set this option to `true` to enable experimental heuristics
 193        that shift diff hunk boundaries to make patches easier to read.
 194
 195diff.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
 212diff.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
 221diff.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
 228diff.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].