Git

Difftastic has good support for git.

One-Off Usage

You can use GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF for a one-off git command.

View uncommitted changes with difftastic:

$ GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF=difft git diff

View changes from the most recent commit with difftastic:

$ GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF=difft git show HEAD --ext-diff

View changes from recent commits on the current branch with difftastic:

$ GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF=difft git log -p --ext-diff

Regular Usage

If you like difftastic, we recommend that you configure git aliases so you can use difftastic more easily.

Add the following to your ~/.gitconfig to use difftastic as a difftool.

[diff]
        tool = difftastic

[difftool]
        prompt = false

[difftool "difftastic"]
        cmd = difft "$LOCAL" "$REMOTE"

[pager]
        difftool = true

You can now use the following command to see changes with difftastic, equivalent to git diff:

$ git difftool

We recommend that you set up a shorter alias for this command in your ~/.gitconfig:

# `git dft` is less to type than `git difftool`.
[alias]
        dft = difftool

For other commands, we also recommend that you set up aliases that are equivalent to the one-off commands shown above.

# `git dlog` to show `git log -p` with difftastic.
[alias]
        dlog = "-c diff.external=difft log -p --ext-diff"

Difftastic By Default

If you want to use difftastic as your default diff tool, add the following to your ~/.gitconfig.

[diff]
        external = difft

This only applies to git diff. For other git commands, you still need to specify --ext-diff, or use an alias as described above.

$ git diff
$ git show HEAD --ext-diff
$ git log -p --ext-diff