diff-so-fancy/README.md

Good-lookin' diffs with diff-highlight and more

# 🎩 diff-so-fancy  [![Circle CI build](https://circleci.com/gh/so-fancy/diff-so-fancy.svg?style=shield)](https://circleci.com/gh/so-fancy/diff-so-fancy) [![AppVeyor build](https://ci.appveyor.com/api/projects/status/github/so-fancy/diff-so-fancy?branch=master&svg=true)](https://ci.appveyor.com/project/stevemao/diff-so-fancy/branch/master)

`diff-so-fancy` makes your diffs **human** readable instead of machine readable. This helps improve code quality and helps you spot defects faster.

## 🖼️ Screenshot

Vanilla `git diff` vs `git` and `diff-so-fancy`

![diff-highlight vs diff-so-fancy](docs/diff-so-fancy.png)

## 📦 Install

Simply copy the `diff-so-fancy` script from the latest [Github release](https://github.com/so-fancy/diff-so-fancy/releases) into your `$PATH` and you're done. Alternately to test development features you can clone this repo and then put the `diff-so-fancy` script (symlink will work) into your `$PATH`. The `lib/` directory will need to be kept relative to the core script.

`diff-so-fancy` is also available from the [NPM registry](https://www.npmjs.com/package/diff-so-fancy), [brew](https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/diff-so-fancy), [Fedora](https://packages.fedoraproject.org/pkgs/diff-so-fancy/diff-so-fancy/), in the [Arch extra repo](https://archlinux.org/packages/extra/any/diff-so-fancy/), and as [ppa:aos for Debian/Ubuntu Linux](https://github.com/aos/dsf-debian).

Issues relating to packaging ("installation does not work", "version is out of date", etc.) should be directed to those packages' repositories/issue trackers where applicable.

## ✨ Usage

### Git

Configure git to use `diff-so-fancy` for all diff output:

```shell
git config --global core.pager "diff-so-fancy | less --tabs=4 -RF"
git config --global interactive.diffFilter "diff-so-fancy --patch"
```

### Diff

Use `-u` with `diff` for unified output, and pipe the output to `diff-so-fancy`:

```shell
diff -u file_a file_b | diff-so-fancy
```

We also support recursive mode with `-r` or `--recursive`

```shell
diff --recursive -u /path/folder_a /path/folder_b | diff-so-fancy
```

## ⚒️ Options

### markEmptyLines

Colorize the first block of an empty line. (Default: true)

```shell
git config --bool --global diff-so-fancy.markEmptyLines false
```

### changeHunkIndicators

Simplify Git header chunks to a human readable format. (Default: true)

```shell
git config --bool --global diff-so-fancy.changeHunkIndicators false
```

### stripLeadingSymbols

Remove the `+` or `-` symbols at start of each diff line. (Default: true)

```shell
git config --bool --global diff-so-fancy.stripLeadingSymbols false
```

### useUnicodeRuler

Use Unicode to draw the ruler lines. Setting this to false will use ASCII
instead. (Default: true)

```shell
git config --bool --global diff-so-fancy.useUnicodeRuler false
```

### rulerWidth

rulerWidth sets the width of the ruler lines. (Default: screen width)

```shell
git config --global diff-so-fancy.rulerWidth 80
```

### shortHeaders

Simplify the header inforation to a *single* line for filename and line
number. (Default false)

```shell
git config --global diff-so-fancy.shortHeaders true
```

## 👨 The diff-so-fancy team

| Person                | Role             |
| --------------------- | ---------------- |
| @scottchiefbaker      | Project lead     |
| @OJFord               | Bug triage       |
| @GenieTim             | Travis OSX fixes |
| @AOS                  | Debian packager  |
| @Stevemao/@Paul Irish | NPM release team |

## 🧬 Contributing

Pull requests are quite welcome, and should target the
[`next` branch](https://github.com/so-fancy/diff-so-fancy/tree/next). We are also
looking for any feedback or ideas on how to make `diff-so-fancy` even *fancier*.

### Other documentation

* [Pro-tips for advanced users](docs/pro-tips.md)
* [Reporting Bugs](docs/reporting-bugs.md)
* [Hacking and Testing](docs/hacking-and-testing.md)
* [History](docs/history.md)

## 🔃 Alternatives

* [Delta](https://github.com/dandavison/delta)
* [Lazygit](https://github.com/jesseduffield/lazygit) with diff-so-fancy [integration](https://github.com/jesseduffield/lazygit/blob/master/docs/Custom_Pagers.md#diff-so-fancy)
* [difftastic](https://github.com/Wilfred/difftastic)

## 🏛️ License

MIT