This script leverages the diff --side-by-side option but its biggest strength is the ability to automatically detect the width of the shell window and adjust the output to fit the screen.
Syntax: side-diff [--verbose] [--wide] [--width WIDTH] [--ignore-space-change] file1 file2
| Option | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|
--wide |
Use the entire width of the screen | diff has a default width it will use |
--width WIDTH |
The specified width is used, regardless of the screen size | diff has a default width it will use |
-b, --ignore-space-change |
Ignore changes in whitespace | Differences in whitespace are not ignored |
-v |
Enable verbose debugging | Debugging is not enabled |
I will use a command like the following:
$ side-diff --wide <(git-cat master README.md) README.md | more-head
git-cat and more-head are other tools of mine in this repository.
--wideand--widthare mutually exclusive- Often when I'm reading output from the script at a screen, I will reduce the size of the screen font to get more on the screen. I usually have to restore it soon but if I don't reduce the size,
diffcan hide some of the content of long lines from the files. --widthis especially useful when redirecting the output to a file, not to the screen