diff-so-fancy takes conventional Git or unified diff output and reformats it for easier reading in a terminal. It retains the information contained in the original diff while improving the presentation of file headers, hunks and changed lines.
It can be configured as Git’s pager and interactive diff filter, or used with ordinary unified output piped from diff. The emphasis is on making reviews easier to scan without replacing Git’s underlying comparison machinery.
This is free and open source software.
Key Features
- Improves Git diff output with clearer file headers, hunk information and within-line highlighting.
- Can process standalone unified diff output as well as Git-generated diffs.
- Supports recursive directory comparisons when fed recursive unified diff output.
- Removes leading addition and deletion indicators from displayed code by default, making copied lines cleaner.
- Includes DiffHighlight-style within-line change highlighting.
- Offers patch mode for use with Git interactive operations.
- Provides short headers that condense filenames and line information onto a single line.
- Supports configurable ruler width and either boxed or full-width ruler presentation around filenames.
- Can use Unicode or ASCII characters when drawing rulers.
- Handles copied and renamed files in Git output.
- Can include summaries produced by sem in changed-file headers.
- Offers configurable treatment of empty lines, hunk indicators and leading diff symbols.
- Works with terminal width supplied through the environment as well as terminal detection.
Website: github.com/so-fancy/diff-so-fancy
Support:
Developer: Scott Baker and contributors
License: MIT License

diff-so-fancy is written in Perl. Learn Perl 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 |
| hunk | Terminal diff viewer with syntax highlighting and side-by-side views |
| 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 |
| diffyml | Compares YAML documents by their structure |
| oyo | Step-through diff viewer |
| 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 |
| 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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Literally thought about this today and found out this was created/updated yesterday 🙌🏾. Great content as always and just donated
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