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r_tanaka
r_tanaka

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How to use terminal to make git diff beautiful

Hi, terminal folks!

There is the word diff feature in git.
Let's activate it now!

First, my git version is this.

$ git version
git version 2.21.0

It is essential to make a diff-highlight binary file.
Then move it to executable path or create a symbolic link for same purpose.
However, initial state of the binary is different depends on each linuxs.
there are 3 patterns as far as I know.

  1. a binary exists with an executable permission
  2. a binary exists with a not-executable permission
  3. there is a make file instead of a binary

I write just for option#3. If your initial state is #1 or #2, please make sure it works by reading below. I guess you can do it.

cd /usr/share/doc/git/contrib/diff-highlight/
sudo make
sudo ln -s /usr/share/doc/git/contrib/diff-highlight/diff-highlight /usr/local/bin/diff-highlight
sudo chmod +x /usr/share/doc/git/contrib/diff-highlight/diff-highlight

At last, edit your ~/.gitconfig file

[core]
    pager = diff-highlight | less -r

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