colordiff

colored syntax highlighting wrapper for diff

TLDR

Compare files with colored output

$ colordiff [file1] [file2]

Unified diff format

$ colordiff -u [file1] [file2]

Pipe diff output through colordiff

$ diff -u [file1] [file2] | colordiff

Side-by-side comparison

$ colordiff -y [file1] [file2]

Compare directories

$ colordiff -r [dir1] [dir2]

View with pager

$ colordiff [file1] [file2] | less -R

SYNOPSIS

colordiff [diffoptions] file1 file2_

colordiff is a wrapper for diff that produces the same output with colored syntax highlighting. Colors improve readability when viewing differences at the command line.
All options are passed through to diff except colordiff-specific options.

PARAMETERS

All diff options are supported, plus:
--difftype=type

Specify diff type: diff, diffc, diffu, diffy, wdiff, debdiff

Standard diff options:
-u

Unified format

-c

Context format

-y

Side-by-side

-r

Recursive directory comparison

CONFIGURATION

/etc/colordiffrc

System-wide configuration

~/.colordiffrc

User configuration

Configuration sets colors for:
- plain text
- new text (added)
- old text (removed)
- diff commands

PAGER USAGE

Use less -R to preserve ANSI colors:

$ colordiff file1 file2 | less -R

ALTERNATIVE

Modern diff (3.4+) supports built-in color:

$ diff --color file1 file2

CAVEATS

Written in Perl. Requires ANSI color support in terminal (xterm, etc.). Colors can be customized via configuration files.