'\" t
.\"     Title: colordiff
.\"    Author: Dave Ewart
.\" Generator: DocBook XSL Stylesheets v1.76.1 <http://docbook.sf.net/>
.\"      Date: 05/21/2015
.\"    Manual: User Commands
.\"    Source: colordiff
.\"  Language: English
.\"
.TH "COLORDIFF" "1" "05/21/2015" "colordiff" "User Commands"
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.SH "NAME"
colordiff \- a tool to colorize \fBdiff\fR output
.SH "SYNOPSIS"
.HP \w'\fBcolordiff\fR\ 'u
\fBcolordiff\fR [\fIdiff\ options\fR] [\fIcolordiff\ options\fR] {\fIfile1\fR} {\fIfile2\fR}
.SH "DESCRIPTION"
.PP
colordiff
is a wrapper for
\fBdiff\fR
and produces the same output as
\fBdiff\fR
but with coloured syntax highlighting at the command line to improve readability\&. The output is similar to how a
\fBdiff\fR\-generated patch might appear in
Vim
or
Emacs
with the appropriate syntax highlighting options enabled\&. The colour schemes can be read from a central configuration file or from a local user
~/\&.colordiffrc
file\&.
.PP
colordiff
makes use of ANSI colours and as such will only work when ANSI colours can be used \- typical examples are xterms and Eterms, as well as console sessions\&.
.PP
colordiff
has been tested on various flavours of Linux and under OpenBSD, but should be broadly portable to other systems\&.
.SH "USAGE"
.PP
Use
colordiff
wherever you would normally use
\fBdiff\fR, or instead pipe output to
colordiff:
.PP
For example:
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
$ colordiff file1 file2
$ diff \-u file1 file2 | colordiff
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.PP
You can pipe the output to \*(Aqless\*(Aq, using the \*(Aq\-R\*(Aq option (some systems or terminal types may get better results using \*(Aq\-r\*(Aq instead), which keeps the colour escape sequences, otherwise displayed incorrectly or discarded by \*(Aqless\*(Aq:
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
$ diff \-u file1 file2 | colordiff | less \-R
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.PP
If you want to force disable colour escape sequences (for example pipe the output to
\fBpatch\fR), you can use option \*(Aq\-\-color=no\*(Aq to do so:
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
$ diff \-u file1 file2 | colordiff \-\-color=no | patch \-p0 \-d another\-working\-dir
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.PP
If you have
\fBwdiff\fR
installed, colordiff will correctly colourise the added and removed text, provided that the \*(Aq\-n\*(Aq option is given to
\fBwdiff\fR:
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
$ wdiff \-n file1 file2 | colordiff
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.PP
You may find it useful to make
\fBdiff\fR
automatically call
\fBcolordiff\fR\&. Add the following line to
~/\&.bashrc
(or equivalent):
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
alias diff=colordiff
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.PP
Any options passed to
colordiff
are passed through to
\fBdiff\fR
except for the colordiff\-specific option \*(Aqdifftype\*(Aq, e\&.g\&.
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
colordiff \-\-difftype=debdiff file1 file2
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.PP
Valid values for \*(Aqdifftype\*(Aq are: diff, diffc, diffu, diffy, wdiff, debdiff; these correspond to plain diffs, context diffs, unified diffs, side\-by\-side diffs, wdiff output and debdiff output respectively\&. Use these overrides when colordiff is not able to determine the diff\-type automatically\&.
.PP
Alternatively, a construct such as \*(Aqcvs diff SOMETHING | colordiff\*(Aq can be included in
~/\&.bashrc
as follows:
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
function cvsdiff () { cvs diff $@ | colordiff; }
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.PP
Or, combining the idea above using \*(Aqless\*(Aq:
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
function cvsdiff () { cvs diff $@ | colordiff |less \-R; }
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.PP
Note that the function name, cvsdiff, can be customized\&.
.PP
By default colordiff returns the exit code of the underlying diff invocation (if there is one), but there are some circumstances where it is useful to force colordiff\*(Aqs exit code to be zero: to do this use the option \*(Aq\-\-fakeexitcode\*(Aq:
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
colordiff \-\-fakeexitcode \&.\&.\&.
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.sp
.SH "FILES"
.PP
/etc/colordiffrc
.RS 4
Central configuration file\&. User\-specific settings can be enabled by copying this file to
~/\&.colordiffrc
and making the appropriate changes\&.
.RE
.PP
colordiffrc\-lightbg
.RS 4
Alternate configuration template for use with terminals having light backgrounds\&. Copy this to /etc/colordiffrc or ~/\&.colordiffrc and customize\&.
.RE
.PP
colordiffrc\-gitdiff
.RS 4
Alternate configuration template for use with terminals having dark backgrounds, with colour defaults set to match the output of \*(Aqgit diff\*(Aq\&. Copy this to /etc/colordiffrc or ~/\&.colordiffrc and customize\&.
.RE
.SH "BUGS"
.PP
Bug reports and suggestions/patches to
davee@sungate\&.co\&.uk
please\&.
.SH "AUTHORS"
.PP
\fBDave Ewart\fR
.RS 4
colordiff author and Debian packager
.RE
.PP
\fBGraham Wilson\fR
.RS 4
Manual page and XML source author
.RE
.PP
\fBColin Tuckley\fR
.RS 4
Debian package sponsor
.RE