diff tools

why is finding a good diff tool so hard?

diff tools

12020-10-25 update

git-delta is basically perfect

orig

I use git in a terminal, and I want:

• side by side diff
• colorful (red/green) diff
• no bloated dependencies

basically what Github has

note

git diff calls external tools with 7 args:

1path old-file old-hex old-mode new-file new-hex new-mode

meaning in most cases you need a basic wrapper script to pass just $2 and $5

1#!/bin/sh
2your-diff-tool "$2" "$5"

options

tldr: side by side only with python or vim/nvim

• ccdiff
  • ~ perl, git uses it so meh
  • - no side by side view
• cdiff
  • fork of ydiff, unknown differences
• colordiff
  • only adds color to a normal diff
• cwdiff
  • wrap wdiff with color
• diff-so-fancy
  • + word diff
  • ~ perl, git uses it so meh
  • - no side by side view
• dwdiff
  • only does word diff
• icdiff
  • + side by side
  • + partial diff
  • - python
• nvim -d
  • + side by side
  • + editor tooling
  • - difficult to close diffs of multiple files
• vim -d
  • also known as vimdiff
  • + side by side
  • + editor tooling
  • - difficult to close diffs of multiple files
• wdiff
  • only does word diff
• ydiff
  • + side by side
  • + word diff
  • - python