(dir)VimDiff as GIT difftool
I configured GIT's difftool command to show the changed files as diff-split file tabs I can easily cycle through by pressing gt.
This makes for a good terminal-based meld/beyond compare/... alternative.
Combined with Tig, it allows to quickly inspect a GIT commit's modifications in file context, let's take a look at the quick and simple steps to set it up.
The history of DirVimDiff
After 12+ years of perforce on the job, I get to use GIT on the main codebase again. Back then, I adapted a script called svnvimdiff to show GIT commits. I extended it to show an entire commit in a VIM window with every file in a tab. I called it Gitvimdiff, but actually it doesn't work all that great, so these days I opt to use my dirvimdiff as git difftool. Also, I once wrote a python script to do the same with perforce changelists.
Dirvimdiff is a quite simple hack at the time of writing, it converts the output of diff to a VIM-script that opens tabs with diff-splits of changed files. Then it launches Vim.
Setting up dirvimdiff / vimdiff in GIT
First, download dirvimdiff from my github scriptbox repository, and put it somewhere in your shell search $PATH.
Next, add these chunks to your ~/.gitconfig file:
[diff]
tool = vimdiff
[difftool "dirvimdiff"]
cmd = dirvimdiff $LOCAL $REMOTE
[alias]
vimdiff = difftool --dir-diff --no-symlinks --tool=dirvimdiff
Now you can use git vimdiff next to git difftool:
thomas@roper thouters.be % git difftool HEAD~1
(triggers tool in [diff] -> launch vimdiff one by one)
thomas@roper thouters.be % git vimdiff HEAD~1
(triggers the [alias] -> launch dirvimdiff, one VIM with tabs)
Configuring Tig
Tig is an ncurses-based text-mode interface for git. It functions mainly as a GIT repository browser, but can also assist in staging changes for commit at chunk level and act as a pager for output from various GIT commands.
To use the dirvimdiff based difftool in tig, you can add this to your ~/.tigrc:
bind status <F4> !git difftool -y %(commit) %(file) bind generic <F5> !git vimdiff %(commit)~1 %(commit)
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