Re: Strange diff behavior?

From: Matthias Lederhofer <matled@gmx.net>
Date: Jun 21, 2007, 06:50 UTC
Message-ID: <20070621065043.GA30521@moooo.ath.cx>
In-Reply-To: <31e9dd080706201802h9dcbffawd82575d09e082155@mail.gmail.com>

Jason Sewall <jasonsewall@gmail.com> wrote:

> It seems like every change listed after the first one is meaningless.
> I really think I just don't understand something about the diff
> algorithm. Can someone tell my why those empty lines are recorded as
> changes?

This are whitespace changes.

    $ git diff --color

marks whitespaces at the end of the line with a red background color so you can see what changed. I also use vim with :set list to see whitespace changes, e.g.

    $ git diff | vim -c 'set list' -

If you like to have colors (not just in diff) permnanently you can add this to your .git/config or ~/.gitconfig:

    [color]
        branch = auto
        diff = auto
        status = auto
        pager = true

See also git-config(1) for more information on these and other configuration options.