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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.
--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.
--[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, --[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.
--[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
Git 2.50.0 07/03/2025 GIT-DIFFTOOL(1)