5 ms·

"In 2.9, Git's diff engine learned a new heuristic: it tries to keep hunk boundaries at blank lines, shifting the hunk "up" whenever the bottom of the hunk matc

"In 2.9, Git's diff engine learned a new heuristic: it tries to keep hunk boundaries at blank lines, shifting the hunk "up" whenever the bottom of the hunk matches the bottom of the preceding context, until we hit a blank line. " I like the new diff improvements

emmelaich 10y ago
In a few (relatively) short years, git's diff has improved on all the other diffs out there.
- darfs 10y ago
  I didnt even know about the mentioned diff-script: https://github.com/git/git/blob/master/contrib/diff-highlight/diff-highlight https://github.com/git/git/blob/master/contrib/diff-highligh... It gives pretty nice output :-) I should definitely learn more about extending git!
  - Spiritus 10y ago
    There's also this https://github.com/so-fancy/diff-so-fancy https://github.com/so-fancy/diff-so-fancy
    - michaelmior 10y ago
      +1 for this. I started using it a few months ago for all my git diffs and I quite like the output. The biggest thing for me is being able to easily see partial line changes.
    - 0942v8653 10y ago
      Requires Node though. Not sure that many people have that installed.
      - TimWolla 10y ago
        It does not: > For convenience, the recommended installation is via NPM. If you'd prefer, you may choose to do a manual installation instead. (highlighting by me) It is written in Perl.
        ymse 10y ago
        Wait, what? A perl app distributed through NPM? What's next, a node app on CPAN? Color me perplexed.
        dietrichepp 10y ago
        There are a lot of non-JS packages in NPM. The Closure compiler, for example.
  - maverickwoo 10y ago
    My favorite git diff extension is the side-by-side diff by cdiff: https://pypi.python.org/pypi/cdiff https://pypi.python.org/pypi/cdiff It also features word-level change highlights and other common flares.
- forrestthewoods 10y ago
  I still prefer Araxis. http://www.araxis.com/merge/index.en http://www.araxis.com/merge/index.en
  - zwieback 10y ago
    It's the absolute best, been using it for years.
    - tomtheengineer 10y ago
      Beyond Compare is the best I've found (especially for complex merges): http://www.scootersoftware.com/ http://www.scootersoftware.com/
      - philliphaydon 10y ago
        Me too. I tried ataxia for about 6 months and hated it, got told about beyond compare, paid for a license after only a few days of the trial .
      - forrestthewoods 10y ago
        Beyond Compare is great. I prefer Araxis. I think most people would be very happy with one of the two. Whichever you happen to prefer.
  - merb 10y ago
    I use: http://www.kaleidoscopeapp.com/ http://www.kaleidoscopeapp.com/
broodbucket 10y ago
Does anyone know if this only works when displaying diffs, or when generating them? It'd definitely be nice if diffs were more readable when sent to mailing lists, i.e. from git format-patch.
- creshal 10y ago
  I'm fairly sure this applies only to the generating engine. (Otherwise it'd somehow need to reformat old diffs on the fly.)
  - avar 10y ago
    Reformat old diffs? If you're under the impression that Git stores diffs you're mistaken. It stores the full file contents and delta-compresses them later. Diffs in Git are purely a presentation format for human consumption.
    - creshal 10y ago
      > Diffs in Git are purely a presentation format for human consumption. git format-patch says hi. Obviously the diff engine changes won't apply to already generated text diffs.
- hibbelig 10y ago
  You can pipe an existing diff through diff-so-fancy or diff-highlight: cat foo.diff | diff-so-fancy I've never tried, but that's what the doc says. [time passes] Oh yes, it seems to work. It doesn't do colors when I try it, but that's probably a misconfiguration on my side. It's how this is intended to be used.
spb 10y ago
I don't understand why Git can't just make the [histogram algorithm][1] default, which has better performance than the base Myers algorithm, and is already built to integrate this type of heuristics (without the bugs that caused this patch to get held back). [1]: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/32365271/whats-the-difference-between-git-diff-patience-and-git-diff-histogram http://stackoverflow.com/questions/32365271/whats-the-differ...
wscott 10y ago
Cool. BitKeeper internal diff, used for recording history and displaying changes has done this since 2001. https://gist.github.com/wscott/c403526ca19a210c13ad649136c15608 https://gist.github.com/wscott/c403526ca19a210c13ad649136c15... http://bkbits.net/u/bk/bugfix/?PAGE=patch&REV=3bdee65dgEb_uMb7G9RGTpivu4A1tA http://bkbits.net/u/bk/bugfix/?PAGE=patch&REV=3bdee65dgEb_uM...
Rafert 10y ago
Does anybody know if the new diff heuristic engine takes info from a .gitattributes file in to account? When using git diff to view changes it already makes a difference, see http://urbanautomaton.com/blog/2011/07/28/git-grep-and-language-specific-diffs/ http://urbanautomaton.com/blog/2011/07/28/git-grep-and-langu...

emmelaich 10y ago

In a few (relatively) short years, git's diff has improved on all the other diffs out there.

darfs 10y ago
I didnt even know about the mentioned diff-script: https://github.com/git/git/blob/master/contrib/diff-highlight/diff-highlight https://github.com/git/git/blob/master/contrib/diff-highligh... It gives pretty nice output :-) I should definitely learn more about extending git!
- Spiritus 10y ago
  There's also this https://github.com/so-fancy/diff-so-fancy https://github.com/so-fancy/diff-so-fancy
  - michaelmior 10y ago
    +1 for this. I started using it a few months ago for all my git diffs and I quite like the output. The biggest thing for me is being able to easily see partial line changes.
  - 0942v8653 10y ago
    Requires Node though. Not sure that many people have that installed.
    - TimWolla 10y ago
      It does not: > For convenience, the recommended installation is via NPM. If you'd prefer, you may choose to do a manual installation instead. (highlighting by me) It is written in Perl.
      - ymse 10y ago
        Wait, what? A perl app distributed through NPM? What's next, a node app on CPAN? Color me perplexed.
        dietrichepp 10y ago
        There are a lot of non-JS packages in NPM. The Closure compiler, for example.
- maverickwoo 10y ago
  My favorite git diff extension is the side-by-side diff by cdiff: https://pypi.python.org/pypi/cdiff https://pypi.python.org/pypi/cdiff It also features word-level change highlights and other common flares.
forrestthewoods 10y ago
I still prefer Araxis. http://www.araxis.com/merge/index.en http://www.araxis.com/merge/index.en
- zwieback 10y ago
  It's the absolute best, been using it for years.
  - tomtheengineer 10y ago
    Beyond Compare is the best I've found (especially for complex merges): http://www.scootersoftware.com/ http://www.scootersoftware.com/
    - philliphaydon 10y ago
      Me too. I tried ataxia for about 6 months and hated it, got told about beyond compare, paid for a license after only a few days of the trial .
    - forrestthewoods 10y ago
      Beyond Compare is great. I prefer Araxis. I think most people would be very happy with one of the two. Whichever you happen to prefer.
- merb 10y ago
  I use: http://www.kaleidoscopeapp.com/ http://www.kaleidoscopeapp.com/

broodbucket 10y ago

Does anyone know if this only works when displaying diffs, or when generating them? It'd definitely be nice if diffs were more readable when sent to mailing lists, i.e. from git format-patch.

creshal 10y ago
I'm fairly sure this applies only to the generating engine. (Otherwise it'd somehow need to reformat old diffs on the fly.)
- avar 10y ago
  Reformat old diffs? If you're under the impression that Git stores diffs you're mistaken. It stores the full file contents and delta-compresses them later. Diffs in Git are purely a presentation format for human consumption.
  - creshal 10y ago
    > Diffs in Git are purely a presentation format for human consumption. git format-patch says hi. Obviously the diff engine changes won't apply to already generated text diffs.
hibbelig 10y ago
You can pipe an existing diff through diff-so-fancy or diff-highlight: cat foo.diff | diff-so-fancy I've never tried, but that's what the doc says. [time passes] Oh yes, it seems to work. It doesn't do colors when I try it, but that's probably a misconfiguration on my side. It's how this is intended to be used.

spb 10y ago

I don't understand why Git can't just make the [histogram algorithm][1] default, which has better performance than the base Myers algorithm, and is already built to integrate this type of heuristics (without the bugs that caused this patch to get held back). [1]: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/32365271/whats-the-difference-between-git-diff-patience-and-git-diff-histogram http://stackoverflow.com/questions/32365271/whats-the-differ...

wscott 10y ago

Cool. BitKeeper internal diff, used for recording history and displaying changes has done this since 2001. https://gist.github.com/wscott/c403526ca19a210c13ad649136c15608 https://gist.github.com/wscott/c403526ca19a210c13ad649136c15... http://bkbits.net/u/bk/bugfix/?PAGE=patch&REV=3bdee65dgEb_uMb7G9RGTpivu4A1tA http://bkbits.net/u/bk/bugfix/?PAGE=patch&REV=3bdee65dgEb_uM...

Rafert 10y ago

Does anybody know if the new diff heuristic engine takes info from a .gitattributes file in to account? When using git diff to view changes it already makes a difference, see http://urbanautomaton.com/blog/2011/07/28/git-grep-and-language-specific-diffs/ http://urbanautomaton.com/blog/2011/07/28/git-grep-and-langu...