diff-so-fancy

Colorize diff

$ diff [[-u|--unified]] [path/to/file1] [path/to/file2] | diff-so-fancy

$ git config --global interactive.diffFilter "diff-so-fancy --patch"

diff-so-fancy [options] < unified diff from stdin

-h, --help
    Show help message

-v, --version
    Display version information

--tabs=TABSTOP
    Input tab width (default: 4)

--tabwidth=TABWIDTH
    Output tab width (default: 8)

--side-by-side
    Display side-by-side diff view

--left-side={old,new}
    Set left side ('old' default)

--no-bold
    Disable all bold formatting

--plain
    Classic patch-style output (minimal color)

--ansi
    Force ANSI color output

--colors-match=REGEX
    Custom color regex for lines

--mark-blank-lines
    Highlight blank lines with markers

diff-so-fancy is a Perl-based utility that transforms standard unified diffs (from git diff, diff -u, etc.) into highly readable, visually appealing output.

It enhances readability by:
• Adding background colors to distinguish old/new lines (red/green backgrounds).
• Providing word-level diffs instead of line-level for precise changes.
• Using bold and other styles for headers, additions/deletions.
• Aligning changes with whitespace handling and tab expansion.
• Supporting side-by-side views.

Designed for terminal use, it's commonly piped into (git diff | diff-so-fancy) or set as Git's pager (git config core.pager 'diff-so-fancy | less --status'). Output is richly colored with 256-color support, making complex code changes easy to scan. Ideal for developers reviewing patches or pull requests in CLI environments.

Perl script (requires Perl 5.10+); not in most distro repos (install via GitHub). Wide terminal recommended for side-by-side. Colors may not render in all pagers/editors.

Configure as pager: git config --global core.pager 'diff-so-fancy | less --status'.
Or alias: git config alias.dff "!git diff | diff-so-fancy"

git clone https://github.com/so-fancy/diff-so-fancy.git
cd diff-so-fancy
sudo cp diff-so-fancy /usr/local/bin
chmod +x required.

Created in 2016 by Brian M. Carlson under so-fancy GitHub org. Gained popularity for Git workflows (~20k stars). Actively maintained with Perl refactors for performance.

git(1), diff(1), less(1), delta(1)