diff-so-fancy

human-readable git diff formatter

TLDR

Pipe git diff through diff-so-fancy

$ git diff | diff-so-fancy

Configure git to use diff-so-fancy

$ git config --global core.pager "diff-so-fancy | less --tabs=4 -RFX"

Use as git diff tool

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

Show file changes with improved output

$ diff-so-fancy < [changes.diff]

diff-so-fancy transforms git diff output into a more human-readable format. It improves the visual presentation of diffs with better line highlighting, cleaner headers, and removed chunk markers.
The tool uses terminal colors effectively to highlight what changed within lines, making code reviews faster and easier. It's designed as a git pager replacement.

PARAMETERS

--patch

Use patch-compatible output mode.

--no-colors

Disable color output.

--colors

Enable color output.

--set-defaults

Configure git to use diff-so-fancy.

CONFIGURATION

~/.gitconfig

Git configuration for integrating diff-so-fancy as the default pager.

GIT CONFIGURATION

$ git config --global core.pager "diff-so-fancy | less --tabs=4 -RFX"
git config --global color.ui true
git config --global color.diff-highlight.oldNormal "red bold"
git config --global color.diff-highlight.oldHighlight "red bold 52"
git config --global color.diff-highlight.newNormal "green bold"
git config --global color.diff-highlight.newHighlight "green bold 22"

CAVEATS

Requires Perl. Modified output not suitable for patch application. Some themes may need color adjustment. Large diffs may be slower.

HISTORY

diff-so-fancy was created by Seth Vargo and is maintained by so-fancy. It emerged from the desire for better diff visualization in terminals, building on git's diff-highlight script with additional formatting improvements.

diff-so-fancy

human-readable git diff formatter

TLDR

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION