How to configure Git diff tool
Łukasz Holeczek
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Using a visual diff tool makes reviewing code changes much easier by providing side-by-side comparison with syntax highlighting.
As the creator of CoreUI with over 25 years of development experience, I’ve reviewed countless code changes using visual diff tools.
The most effective solution is to configure Git to use your preferred diff tool using git config diff.tool.
This setup enhances code review efficiency and helps catch subtle changes that might be missed in terminal output.
Configure your preferred diff tool using git config diff.tool.
# Set VS Code as diff tool
git config --global diff.tool vscode
git config --global difftool.vscode.cmd 'code --wait --diff $LOCAL $REMOTE'
# Set Meld as diff tool
git config --global diff.tool meld
# Set Beyond Compare as diff tool
git config --global diff.tool bc
# Use the diff tool
git difftool
git difftool HEAD~1 HEAD
The git config --global diff.tool command sets your preferred tool for all repositories. For VS Code, an additional command specifies the launch command with proper arguments. Popular tools like Meld and Beyond Compare are recognized automatically. Running git difftool opens the configured tool to compare changes, and you can specify commits or branches to compare. Add --no-prompt to skip confirmation for each file when comparing multiple files.
Best Practice Note
This is the same diff tool configuration we use for CoreUI code reviews to ensure thorough change inspection. For faster terminal-based diffs, continue using git diff, and reserve git difftool for detailed reviews of complex changes. You can also configure different tools for diff and merge operations based on your workflow preferences.
