Posts tagged "diff"

`diff.orderFile`: order your `git diff` output smart!

Working on a project, you might consider that one folder is more important than others. For example, src folder might be more relevant to you as a developer than doc, test, or samples, you name it. Or you may want source files to be listed first, e.g. *.c, *.go...

To order the list of files in git diff output, one may use git's diff.orderFile option.

If you are working with PostgreSQL for example, you may want such an order:

src/include/* 
src/common/* 
src/port/* 
config/* 
src/makefiles/* 
src/template/* 
src/backend/* 
src/fe_utils/* 
src/bin/* 
src/interfaces/libpq/* 
src/pl/* 
contrib/* 
src/interfaces/* 
doc/* 
src/test/*

To achieve this:

  • create a file with the proper list, e.g. .gitorderfile
  • run git config diff.orderFile .gitorderfile

You're done!