GIT-DIFFTOOL(1)                                                     Git Manual                                                     GIT-DIFFTOOL(1)

NAME

       git-difftool - Show changes using common diff tools

SYNOPSIS

       git difftool [<options>] [<commit> [<commit>]] [--] [<path>...]

DESCRIPTION

       git difftool is a Git command that allows you to compare and edit files between revisions using common diff tools. git difftool is a
       frontend to git diff and accepts the same options and arguments. See git-diff(1).

OPTIONS

       -d, --dir-diff
           Copy the modified files to a temporary location and perform a directory diff on them. This mode never prompts before launching the diff
           tool.

       -y, --no-prompt
           Do not prompt before launching a diff tool.

       --prompt
           Prompt before each invocation of the diff tool. This is the default behaviour; the option is provided to override any configuration
           settings.

       -t <tool>, --tool=<tool>
           Use the diff tool specified by <tool>. Valid values include emerge, kompare, meld, and vimdiff. Run git difftool --tool-help for the
           list of valid <tool> settings.

           If a diff tool is not specified, git difftool will use the configuration variable diff.tool. If the configuration variable diff.tool is
           not set, git difftool will pick a suitable default.

           You can explicitly provide a full path to the tool by setting the configuration variable difftool.<tool>.path. For example, you can
           configure the absolute path to kdiff3 by setting difftool.kdiff3.path. Otherwise, git difftool assumes the tool is available in PATH.

           Instead of running one of the known diff tools, git difftool can be customized to run an alternative program by specifying the command
           line to invoke in a configuration variable difftool.<tool>.cmd.

           When git difftool is invoked with this tool (either through the -t or --tool option or the diff.tool configuration variable) the
           configured command line will be invoked with the following variables available: $LOCAL is set to the name of the temporary file
           containing the contents of the diff pre-image and $REMOTE is set to the name of the temporary file containing the contents of the diff
           post-image.  $MERGED is the name of the file which is being compared.  $BASE is provided for compatibility with custom merge tool
           commands and has the same value as $MERGED.

       --tool-help
           Print a list of diff tools that may be used with --tool.

       --[no-]symlinks
           git difftool's default behavior is create symlinks to the working tree when run in --dir-diff mode and the right-hand side of the
           comparison yields the same content as the file in the working tree.

           Specifying --no-symlinks instructs git difftool to create copies instead.  --no-symlinks is the default on Windows.

       -x <command>, --extcmd=<command>
           Specify a custom command for viewing diffs.  git-difftool ignores the configured defaults and runs $command $LOCAL $REMOTE when this
           option is specified. Additionally, $BASE is set in the environment.

       -g, --[no-]gui
           When git-difftool is invoked with the -g or --gui option the default diff tool will be read from the configured diff.guitool variable
           instead of diff.tool. The --no-gui option can be used to override this setting.

       --[no-]trust-exit-code
           git-difftool invokes a diff tool individually on each file. Errors reported by the diff tool are ignored by default. Use
           --trust-exit-code to make git-difftool exit when an invoked diff tool returns a non-zero exit code.

           git-difftool will forward the exit code of the invoked tool when --trust-exit-code is used.

       See git-diff(1) for the full list of supported options.

CONFIG VARIABLES

       git difftool falls back to git mergetool config variables when the difftool equivalents have not been defined.

       diff.tool
           The default diff tool to use.

       diff.guitool
           The default diff tool to use when --gui is specified.

       difftool.<tool>.path
           Override the path for the given tool. This is useful in case your tool is not in the PATH.

       difftool.<tool>.cmd
           Specify the command to invoke the specified diff tool.

           See the --tool=<tool> option above for more details.

       difftool.prompt
           Prompt before each invocation of the diff tool.

       difftool.trustExitCode
           Exit difftool if the invoked diff tool returns a non-zero exit status.

           See the --trust-exit-code option above for more details.

SEE ALSO

       git-diff(1)
           Show changes between commits, commit and working tree, etc

       git-mergetool(1)
           Run merge conflict resolution tools to resolve merge conflicts

       git-config(1)
           Get and set repository or global options

GIT

       Part of the git(1) suite

Git 2.17.1                                                          10/05/2018                                                     GIT-DIFFTOOL(1)