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"git show" does not use diff.external like "git diff" does

Subject: "git show" does not use diff.external like "git diff" does

## tl;dr

3 messages between Dec 28, 2010 and Dec 28, 2010.

replies: 2people: 2as markdown or json

Bruce Momjian· Dec 28, 2010, 15:10 UTC · lore

I have diff.external configured properly, and it is used by "git diff", but "git show" does not call the script and only returns unified diffs.

Is there a way to make "git show" use an external diff script?
-- 
  Bruce Momjian  <bruce@momjian.us>        http://momjian.us
  EnterpriseDB                             http://enterprisedb.com

  + It's impossible for everything to be true. +
Junio C Hamano· Dec 28, 2010, 17:52 UTC · re: Bruce Momjian · lore

Re: "git show" does not use diff.external like "git diff" does

Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us> writes:
> I have diff.external configured properly, and it is used by "git diff",
> but "git show" does not call the script and only returns unified diffs.
>
> Is there a way to make "git show" use an external diff script?
"git show --ext-diff"?

We end the Description section of the manual with "This manual page describes only the most frequently used options." without explicitly saying "Options from the underlying this and that commands can be given as well", which is rather suboptimal.

The only existing hint there is one sentence before, "The command takes options applicable to the git diff-tree command...", but the reader needs to be both careful and vaguely familiar with the way the git command set is structured to take advantage of that hint.

Bruce Momjian· Dec 28, 2010, 17:54 UTC · re: Junio C Hamano · lore

Re: "git show" does not use diff.external like "git diff" does

Junio C Hamano wrote:
Show 18 quoted lines
> Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us> writes:
> 
> > I have diff.external configured properly, and it is used by "git diff",
> > but "git show" does not call the script and only returns unified diffs.
> >
> > Is there a way to make "git show" use an external diff script?
> 
> "git show --ext-diff"?
> 
> We end the Description section of the manual with "This manual page
> describes only the most frequently used options." without explicitly
> saying "Options from the underlying this and that commands can be given as
> well", which is rather suboptimal.
> 
> The only existing hint there is one sentence before, "The command takes
> options applicable to the git diff-tree command...", but the reader needs
> to be both careful and vaguely familiar with the way the git command set
> is structured to take advantage of that hint.

Yes, someone on IRC eventually suggested --ext-diff, and it does work. I was hoping for something that caused 'show' to always use --ext-diff, like git diff does. A git alias was the only suggested workaround.

-- 
  Bruce Momjian  <bruce@momjian.us>        http://momjian.us
  EnterpriseDB                             http://enterprisedb.com

  + It's impossible for everything to be true. +

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