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.

--rotate-to=<file>

Start showing the diff for the given path, the paths before it will move to the end and output.

--skip-to=<file>

Start showing the diff for the given path, skipping all the paths before it.

-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.

--symlinks
--no-symlinks

git difftool's default behavior is to 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
--gui
--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. This may be selected automatically using the configuration variable difftool.guiDefault. The --no-gui option can be used to override these settings. If diff.guitool is not set, we will fallback in the order of merge.guitool, diff.tool, merge.tool until a tool is found.

--trust-exit-code
--no-trust-exit-code

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.

CONFIGURATION

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

Everything above this line in this section isn’t included from the git-config(1) documentation. The content that follows is the same as what’s found there:

diff.tool

Controls which diff tool is used by git-difftool(1). This variable overrides the value configured in merge.tool. The list below shows the valid built-in values. Any other value is treated as a custom diff tool and requires that a corresponding difftool.<tool>.cmd variable is defined.

diff.guitool

Controls which diff tool is used by git-difftool(1) when the -g/--gui flag is specified. This variable overrides the value configured in merge.guitool. The list below shows the valid built-in values. Any other value is treated as a custom diff tool and requires that a corresponding difftool.<guitool>.cmd variable is defined.

araxis

Use Araxis Merge (requires a graphical session)

bc

Use Beyond Compare (requires a graphical session)

bc3

Use Beyond Compare (requires a graphical session)

bc4

Use Beyond Compare (requires a graphical session)

codecompare

Use Code Compare (requires a graphical session)

deltawalker

Use DeltaWalker (requires a graphical session)

diffmerge

Use DiffMerge (requires a graphical session)

diffuse

Use Diffuse (requires a graphical session)

ecmerge

Use ECMerge (requires a graphical session)

emerge

Use Emacs' Emerge

examdiff

Use ExamDiff Pro (requires a graphical session)

guiffy

Use Guiffy’s Diff Tool (requires a graphical session)

gvimdiff

Use gVim (requires a graphical session)

kdiff3

Use KDiff3 (requires a graphical session)

kompare

Use Kompare (requires a graphical session)

meld

Use Meld (requires a graphical session)

nvimdiff

Use Neovim

opendiff

Use FileMerge (requires a graphical session)

p4merge

Use HelixCore P4Merge (requires a graphical session)

smerge

Use Sublime Merge (requires a graphical session)

tkdiff

Use TkDiff (requires a graphical session)

vimdiff

Use Vim

vscode

Use Visual Studio Code (requires a graphical session)

winmerge

Use WinMerge (requires a graphical session)

xxdiff

Use xxdiff (requires a graphical session)

difftool.<tool>.cmd

Specify the command to invoke the specified diff tool. The specified command is evaluated in shell 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.

See the --tool=<tool> option in git-difftool(1) for more details.

difftool.<tool>.path

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

difftool.trustExitCode

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

See the --trust-exit-code option in git-difftool(1) for more details.

difftool.prompt

Prompt before each invocation of the diff tool.

difftool.guiDefault

Set true to use the diff.guitool by default (equivalent to specifying the --gui argument), or auto to select diff.guitool or diff.tool depending on the presence of a DISPLAY environment variable value. The default is false, where the --gui argument must be provided explicitly for the diff.guitool to be used.

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