Delta is a viewer for git and diff output.
The program allows you to make extensive changes to the layout and styling of diffs, as well as allowing you to stay arbitrarily close to the default git/diff output.
This is free and open source software.
Key Features
- Language syntax highlighting with color themes.
- Within-line highlights based on a Levenshtein edit inference algorithm.
- Git style strings (foreground color, background color, font attributes) are supported for >20 stylable elements.
- Side-by-side view. By default, side-by-side view has line-numbers activated, and has syntax highlighting in both the left and right panels
- Line numbering.
- diff-highlight and diff-so-fancy emulation modes. diff-highlight is a perl script distributed with git that allows within-line edits to be identified and highlighted according to colors specified in git config. diff-so-fancy builds on diff-highlight, making various additional improvements to the default git diff output. Both tools provide very helpful ways of viewing diffs, and so delta provides emulation modes for both of them.
- Stylable box/line decorations to draw attention to commit, file and hunk header sections.
- Support for Git’s –color-moved feature.
- Code can be copied directly from the diff (-/+ markers are removed by default).
- n and N keybindings to move between files in large diffs, and between diffs in log -p views (–navigate).
Website: github.com/dandavison/delta
Support:
Developer: Dan Davison
License: MIT License

delta is written in Rust. Learn Rust with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
Related Software
| Terminal-Based Diff Tools | |
|---|---|
| difftastic | Structural diff tool that compares files based on their syntax |
| diff-so-fancy | Attractive diffs with diff-highlight and more |
| delta | Viewer for git and diff output |
| icdiff | An improved colored diff |
| diffoscope | In-depth comparison of files, archives, and directories |
| colordiff | Wrapper for diff with pretty syntax highlighting |
| diffsitter | Semantic diff tool |
| objdiff | Local diffing tool for decompilation project |
| ydiff | Tool to view colored, incremental diff in a version controlled workspace |
| diffr | Word-by-word diff highlighting utility |
| dyff | diff tool for YAML files |
| Wdiff | Wordwise implementation of diff |
| dwdiff | diff program that operates at the word level |
| oyo | Step-through diff viewer |
| diffyml | Compares YAML documents by their structure |
| diff2html-cli | Generate HTML diffs |
| biodiff | Terminal-based binary diff viewer |
| dirdiff | Compute the differences between two directories |
| csvdiff | Fast diff tool for comparing CSV files |
| VBinDiff | Visual binary diff |
| riff | Wrapper around diff |
| csv-diff | Diffing CSV and JSON files |
| xmldiff | Compare XML documents |
| vbl | Terminal-based hexadecimal viewer |
| Patdiff | File diff using the Patience Diff algorithm |
| dead-ringer | Binary diff utility |
| sesdiff | Generates a shortest edit script |
| semdiff | Semantic diff tool written in Rust |
Read our verdict in the software roundup.
| Git Tools for Diff Review and Repository History | |
|---|---|
| difftastic | Structural diff tool that compares files based on their syntax |
| git-filter-repo | Quickly rewrite git repository history |
| onefetch | Displays information about a local Git repository |
| git-stats | Local git statistics including GitHub-like contributions calendars |
| diff-so-fancy | Attractive diffs with diff-highlight and more |
| BFG Repo-Cleaner | Clean unwanted data from Git repository history |
| git-delta | Viewer for git and diff output |
| gitlogue | Cinematic Git commit replay tool |
| git-quick-stats | Access various statistics in a git repository |
| git-who | Command-line Git analysis tool |
| git-standup | Recall what you did on the last working day |
| git-of-theseus | Analyze how a Git repo grows over time |
| git-sizer | Compute various size metrics for a git repository |
| diffnav | Git diff pager based on delta but with a file tree, à la GitHub |
| critique | Terminal UI for reviewing git diffs |
| git-big-picture | Visualization tool for Git repositories |
| hercules | Gain advanced insights from Git repository history |
| keifu | TUI that visualizes Git commit graphs |
| git-fame | Git repository collaborators sorted by contributions |
| needle | Highlights GitHub PRs |
| mergiraf | Git merge driver |
| git-history | Analyze Git history using SQLite |
| ec | Terminal Git mergetool |
| diffr | Word-by-word diff highlighting utility |
| git-scope | Fast TUI dashboard to view the git status of all your repositories |
| mamediff | Manages unstaged and staged Git diffs |
| deadbranch | Keep Git repositories tidy |
| GitTop | Lightweight desktop client for GitHub notifications |
| git-heatmap | Generates a customizable heatmap |
Read our verdict in the software roundup.
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