GIT-DIFFTOOL(1) Git Manual GIT-DIFFTOOL(1)

NAME

git-difftool - Show changes using common diff tools

SYNOPSIS

git difftool [<options>] [<commit> [<commit>]] [--] [<path>...]

DESCRIPTION

git difftool is a Git command that allows you to compare and edit
files between revisions using common diff tools. git difftool is a
frontend to git diff and accepts the same options and arguments. See
git-diff(1).

OPTIONS

-d, --dir-diff
Copy the modified files to a temporary location and perform a
directory diff on them. This mode never prompts before launching
the diff tool.

-y, --no-prompt
Do not prompt before launching a diff tool.

--prompt
Prompt before each invocation of the diff tool. This is the
default behaviour; the option is provided to override any
configuration settings.

--rotate-to=<file>
Start showing the diff for the given path, the paths before it
will move to the end and output.

--skip-to=<file>
Start showing the diff for the given path, skipping all the paths
before it.

-t <tool>, --tool=<tool>
Use the diff tool specified by <tool>. Valid values include
emerge, kompare, meld, and vimdiff. Run git difftool --tool-help
for the list of valid <tool> settings.

If a diff tool is not specified, git difftool will use the
configuration variable diff.tool. If the configuration variable
diff.tool is not set, git difftool will pick a suitable default.

You can explicitly provide a full path to the tool by setting the
configuration variable difftool.<tool>.path. For example, you can
configure the absolute path to kdiff3 by setting
difftool.kdiff3.path. Otherwise, git difftool assumes the tool is
available in PATH.

Instead of running one of the known diff tools, git difftool can
be customized to run an alternative program by specifying the
command line to invoke in a configuration variable
difftool.<tool>.cmd.

When git difftool is invoked with this tool (either through the
-t or --tool option or the diff.tool configuration variable) the
configured command line will be invoked with the following
variables available: $LOCAL is set to the name of the temporary
file containing the contents of the diff pre-image and $REMOTE is
set to the name of the temporary file containing the contents of
the diff post-image. $MERGED is the name of the file which is
being compared. $BASE is provided for compatibility with custom
merge tool commands and has the same value as $MERGED.

--tool-help
Print a list of diff tools that may be used with --tool.

--[no-]symlinks
git difftool's default behavior is to create symlinks to the
working tree when run in --dir-diff mode and the right-hand side
of the comparison yields the same content as the file in the
working tree.

Specifying --no-symlinks instructs git difftool to create copies
instead. --no-symlinks is the default on Windows.

-x <command>, --extcmd=<command>
Specify a custom command for viewing diffs. git-difftool ignores
the configured defaults and runs <command> $LOCAL $REMOTE when
this option is specified. Additionally, $BASE is set in the
environment.

-g, --[no-]gui
When git-difftool is invoked with the -g or --gui option the
default diff tool will be read from the configured diff.guitool
variable instead of diff.tool. This may be selected automatically
using the configuration variable difftool.guiDefault. The
--no-gui option can be used to override these settings. If
diff.guitool is not set, we will fallback in the order of
merge.guitool, diff.tool, merge.tool until a tool is found.

--[no-]trust-exit-code
Errors reported by the diff tool are ignored by default. Use
--trust-exit-code to make git-difftool exit when an invoked diff
tool returns a non-zero exit code.

git-difftool will forward the exit code of the invoked tool when
--trust-exit-code is used.

See git-diff(1) for the full list of supported options.

CONFIGURATION

git difftool falls back to git mergetool config variables when the
difftool equivalents have not been defined.

Everything above this line in this section isn't included from the
git-config(1) documentation. The content that follows is the same as
what's found there:

diff.tool
Controls which diff tool is used by git-difftool(1). This
variable overrides the value configured in merge.tool. The list
below shows the valid built-in values. Any other value is treated
as a custom diff tool and requires that a corresponding
difftool.<tool>.cmd variable is defined.

diff.guitool
Controls which diff tool is used by git-difftool(1) when the
-g/--gui flag is specified. This variable overrides the value
configured in merge.guitool. The list below shows the valid
built-in values. Any other value is treated as a custom diff tool
and requires that a corresponding difftool.<guitool>.cmd variable
is defined.

difftool.<tool>.cmd
Specify the command to invoke the specified diff tool. The
specified command is evaluated in shell with the following
variables available: LOCAL is set to the name of the temporary
file containing the contents of the diff pre-image and REMOTE is
set to the name of the temporary file containing the contents of
the diff post-image.

See the --tool=<tool> option in git-difftool(1) for more details.

difftool.<tool>.path
Override the path for the given tool. This is useful in case your
tool is not in the PATH.

difftool.trustExitCode
Exit difftool if the invoked diff tool returns a non-zero exit
status.

See the --trust-exit-code option in git-difftool(1) for more
details.

difftool.prompt
Prompt before each invocation of the diff tool.

difftool.guiDefault
Set true to use the diff.guitool by default (equivalent to
specifying the --gui argument), or auto to select diff.guitool or
diff.tool depending on the presence of a DISPLAY environment
variable value. The default is false, where the --gui argument
must be provided explicitly for the diff.guitool to be used.

SEE ALSO

git-diff(1)
Show changes between commits, commit and working tree, etc

git-mergetool(1)
Run merge conflict resolution tools to resolve merge conflicts

git-config(1)
Get and set repository or global options

GIT

Part of the git(1) suite

Git 2.48.1 2025-01-13 GIT-DIFFTOOL(1)