gdiff

A tiny TUI around git diff.

Install

git clone https://github.com/Julius-IX/gdiff.git
cd gdiff
cargo install --path .

Usage

gdiff                 # working tree vs HEAD~X
gdiff <commit>        # <commit> vs <commit>~X
gdiff --follow        # slide both sides back: HEAD~0 vs HEAD~1, then HEAD~1 vs HEAD~2, ...
gdiff <commit> -f     # same, starting from <commit>
gdiff --no-pager      # ignore your git pager/color config

X starts at 0 and goes up to the number of commits reachable from the starting commit.

With an explicit commit, X can also go negative: ← past 0 steps towards newer commits (along HEAD's first-parent chain) up to HEAD. In that direction <commit> is the old side and the newer commit is the new side.

Keys

Key	Action
← / → or h / l	Compare against a newer / older commit
↑ / ↓ or j / k	Scroll the diff
PgUp / PgDn	Scroll a page
q / Esc	Quit

Pager support

gdiff renders diffs through the pager git itself would use for git diff: pager.diff if set, otherwise the result of git var GIT_PAGER ($GIT_PAGER -> core.pager -> $PAGER). Tools such as delta and bat work without additional setup.

A TUI cannot hand the terminal to an interactive pager. Instead, gdiff pipes the diff through the configured command non-interactively, parses the resulting ANSI output, and displays it in its own viewport. Scrolling is handled by gdiff.

• Passthrough pagers: less, more and cat are skipped. Git's native colors are used instead.
• bat: requires a language to highlight diffs (e.g. bat -l diff). gdiff sets BAT_OPTS to force color output and disable paging.
• delta: cannot detect the terminal width when its output is piped. gdiff sets COLUMNS; if side-by-side layouts render incorrectly, set width in your delta configuration.
• Failures: if the pager exits with an error, the message is shown in the diff pane. Use --no-pager to bypass it.

Notes

• With no arguments, X=0 shows git diff HEAD (staged + unstaged), not plain git diff.
• With an explicit commit, X=0 compares the commit to itself, so you'll see "(no changes)" until you press →.
• Pagers are launched with sh -c, so on Windows you need Git for Windows.