How to make git diff --ignore-space-change the default

I could probably setup an alias, but it seems like I should be able to set this as an option in the config file, only I don't see anyway to do it.

I only want the --ignore-space-change when I'm doing diff, not when I'm doing apply or anything else. I'm trying to make the diff easier to understand by not cluttering it with with extraneous +/- lines that have no real changes on them.

6 Answers

You could use git alias or bash alias if you are using shell-available OS.

1. git alias : Run this command to add alias:

   git config --global alias.dfw 'diff --ignore-space-change'

   --ignore-space-change can be abbreviated to -w
   to apply the alias using: git dfw

2. bash alias : Run this command to add bash alias:

   echo "alias gitdfw='git diff --ignore-space-change'">>~/.profile

   Open a new terminal and you can directly run gitdfw to achieve the same.

According to the Git Config manual, there's no such option. Your only option is to make an alias.

Old question (2011), but now there's a shortcut git diff -w which stands for --ignore-all-space

Ignore whitespace when comparing lines. This ignores differences even if one line has whitespace where the other line has none.

I'd agree with Dogbert's answer that it's probably best to just use an alias, but another option is to set the config option diff.external to a wrapper script that calls diff with -b.

This doesn't answer your question exactly, but it's a way to achieve something similar for apply.

From man git-config:

 apply.whitespace Tells git apply how to handle whitespaces, in the same way as the --whitespace option. See git-apply(1). 

So open up your ~/.gitconfig or ./.git/config/ and append

[apply] whitespace = nowarn 

It might also not let you commit something that only changes whitespace, but I'm sure you can overrule that with some flags.

it would be great if this were possible with an option. but an alias works fairly well. here are the relevant lines from my .gitconfig:

[diff] tool = mydiff [difftool "mydiff"] cmd = "colordiff -NuBbwi \"$LOCAL\" \"$REMOTE\" | less -R" [difftool] prompt = false [alias] dt = difftool 

this assumes using colordiff, which i recommend, giving you an almost exact copy of what git diff would show, with two differences:

1. the --- line in colordiff is colored differently than the same line in git diff (very minor issue)
2. each file is shown one at a time (annoying issue -- anyone know a fix?)

here's my /etc/colordiffrc:

plain=off newtext=green oldtext=red diffstuff=cyan cvsstuff=red 

Mac OS X 10.9.2, git version 1.8.5.2 (Apple Git-48)

(colordiff was obtained from brew)