4 ms·

While everyone is here considering their life choices (at least as far as they relate to ~/.gitconfig), highly recommend delta [1] as a companion to the git cl

by _kb 2y ago

While everyone is here considering their life choices (at least as far as they relate to ~/.gitconfig), highly recommend delta [1] as a companion to the git cli. [1]: https://dandavison.github.io/delta/ https://dandavison.github.io/delta/

schacon 2y ago
I really wanted to add this (I linked it in the last paragraph) but I really wanted to keep the recommendations globally applicable in vanilla git. Delta is awesome though.
leonheld 2y ago
After using delta for a while, I'm going back to the regular diff view... it's not that it isn't good, but I'm constantly copying diffs (yes, I know I can generate patches) and the pretty output breaks that workflow. Also, when your terminal is a bit small it's a bit hard to see things. But it's really good software, I recommend anyone who's reading to give it a try.
- JadedBlueEyes 2y ago
  IIRC if you pipe the output to, e.g, xclip, or redirect to a file it will give the original diff format. Not as convenient, but still workable.
  - leonheld 2y ago
    I... did not know that! Yep yep that should do the trick for me. Thanks a lot, actually!
    - mplanchard 2y ago
      Most tools that do formatted output, if they’re well-behaved, should try to detect if their output is a pipe and if so, disable formatting. Some examples that I can think of off the top of my head (in addition to git) are ripgrep and jq, both of which do the right thing and strip formatting.
      - knome 2y ago
        rather they should detect that output is a terminal and enable the coloring
  - pca006132 2y ago
    Wow I never knew this, I always just type `--no-ext-diff` when piping the output. Thanks!
    - ramses0 2y ago
      `... | cat` is sometimes really handy (and universal)
      - lucasoshiro 2y ago
        I use git -c core.pager = less, but piping seems to be a less verbose option... hmmm I'll try it
  - rusk 2y ago
    Pipe through cat should work
- PhilippGille 2y ago
  Isn't copying without the formatting just a `<your diff command> | pbcopy` away?
  - genewitch 2y ago
    I have Gemini set to decipher HN comments that I don't immediately understand. This is a macos only command `pbcopy`? Aside: Gemini mentioned it didn't want me to ask it questions about bikeshedding what shade of blue on a website header so I think it's got our number.
    - chuckadams 2y ago
      Yes pbcopy is a mac thing. On Linux, there are of course many different commands in different environments/distros. xsel, xclip, wl-clipboard, wlclip to name a few. On windows, powershell has Get-Clipboard and Set-Clipboard, and cmd.exe has `wsl` to fix the issue of having used cmd.exe to begin with.
      - ramses0 2y ago
        On Linux I made a ~/bin/pbcopy that does the right thing because all the Linux commands are stupidly difficult to remember compared to "pbcopy".
      - jeeva 2y ago
        There's also clip(.exe) on every version of Windows I've bumped into recently.
    - Macha 2y ago
      Though, if you have a preferred shade of blue, you can actually use it for the HN header in your user settings.
mplanchard 2y ago
If you’re an emacser, you can even use delta with magit via the same author’s magit-delta package: https://github.com/dandavison/magit-delta https://github.com/dandavison/magit-delta Looks like there are also instructions in the docs for using it with vscode

by _kb 2y ago

schacon 2y ago

I really wanted to add this (I linked it in the last paragraph) but I really wanted to keep the recommendations globally applicable in vanilla git. Delta is awesome though.

leonheld 2y ago

After using delta for a while, I'm going back to the regular diff view... it's not that it isn't good, but I'm constantly copying diffs (yes, I know I can generate patches) and the pretty output breaks that workflow. Also, when your terminal is a bit small it's a bit hard to see things. But it's really good software, I recommend anyone who's reading to give it a try.

JadedBlueEyes 2y ago
IIRC if you pipe the output to, e.g, xclip, or redirect to a file it will give the original diff format. Not as convenient, but still workable.
- leonheld 2y ago
  I... did not know that! Yep yep that should do the trick for me. Thanks a lot, actually!
  - mplanchard 2y ago
    Most tools that do formatted output, if they’re well-behaved, should try to detect if their output is a pipe and if so, disable formatting. Some examples that I can think of off the top of my head (in addition to git) are ripgrep and jq, both of which do the right thing and strip formatting.
    - knome 2y ago
      rather they should detect that output is a terminal and enable the coloring
- pca006132 2y ago
  Wow I never knew this, I always just type `--no-ext-diff` when piping the output. Thanks!
  - ramses0 2y ago
    `... | cat` is sometimes really handy (and universal)
    - lucasoshiro 2y ago
      I use git -c core.pager = less, but piping seems to be a less verbose option... hmmm I'll try it
- rusk 2y ago
  Pipe through cat should work
PhilippGille 2y ago
Isn't copying without the formatting just a `<your diff command> | pbcopy` away?
- genewitch 2y ago
  I have Gemini set to decipher HN comments that I don't immediately understand. This is a macos only command `pbcopy`? Aside: Gemini mentioned it didn't want me to ask it questions about bikeshedding what shade of blue on a website header so I think it's got our number.
  - chuckadams 2y ago
    Yes pbcopy is a mac thing. On Linux, there are of course many different commands in different environments/distros. xsel, xclip, wl-clipboard, wlclip to name a few. On windows, powershell has Get-Clipboard and Set-Clipboard, and cmd.exe has `wsl` to fix the issue of having used cmd.exe to begin with.
    - ramses0 2y ago
      On Linux I made a ~/bin/pbcopy that does the right thing because all the Linux commands are stupidly difficult to remember compared to "pbcopy".
    - jeeva 2y ago
      There's also clip(.exe) on every version of Windows I've bumped into recently.
  - Macha 2y ago
    Though, if you have a preferred shade of blue, you can actually use it for the HN header in your user settings.

mplanchard 2y ago

If you’re an emacser, you can even use delta with magit via the same author’s magit-delta package: https://github.com/dandavison/magit-delta https://github.com/dandavison/magit-delta Looks like there are also instructions in the docs for using it with vscode