diff-so-fancy

Note: This is completely optional. It is not needed to use Git. It is a convenience improvement for those who have been working with git diff for a while and want the output to be more readable.

What it does

diff-so-fancy improves the presentation of Git diffs. It turns the raw output of git diff into something cleaner, with better color differentiation and without the + and - symbols at the beginning of each line.

It is useful when you review changes frequently and prefer a nicer reading experience.

Installation

Before installing through other means, check if your distribution includes it in its official repositories.

Linux

Arch Linux:

sudo pacman -S diff-so-fancy

Debian / Ubuntu:

sudo apt install diff-so-fancy

macOS

brew install diff-so-fancy

If it is not in the repositories

You can install it via npm:

npm install -g diff-so-fancy

Or download the script directly from its official repository.

Configuration with .gitconfig

The usual way to use it is by configuring Git to pipe the output of git diff (and related commands) through diff-so-fancy.

Add or modify the following sections in your ~/.gitconfig file:

[core]
    pager = diff-so-fancy | less --tabs=4 -RFX

[color]
    ui = true

[color "diff-highlight"]
    oldNormal = red bold
    oldHighlight = red bold 52
    newNormal = green bold
    newHighlight = green bold 22

[color "diff"]
    meta = 11
    frag = magenta bold
    commit = yellow bold
    old = red bold
    new = green bold
    whitespace = red reverse

With this, commands like git diff, git log -p, or git show will automatically use diff-so-fancy.

What now?

Open any repository and run git diff. If everything is set up, you will see a cleaner output with better use of color.

If something does not work, verify that diff-so-fancy is in your PATH by running which diff-so-fancy.