# [QUESTION] '--color-words' for 'git add -p'?

2 messages from 2011-04-29 to 2011-04-29. Participants: Valentin Haenel, Jeff King.
Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/27222

## Valentin Haenel, 2011-04-29 16:42

Subject: [QUESTION] '--color-words' for 'git add -p'?
Message-ID: <20110429164210.GA14937@kudu.in-berlin.de>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/20110429164210.GA14937%40kudu.in-berlin.de

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Hi,

is it possible to use some kind of magic to get 'git add -p' to display
diff with '--color-words' option? I tried GIT_DIFF_OPTS but w/o success.

thx

V-

```

## Jeff King, 2011-04-29 22:38

Subject: Re: [QUESTION] '--color-words' for 'git add -p'?
Message-ID: <20110429223814.GB3434@sigill.intra.peff.net>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/20110429223814.GB3434%40sigill.intra.peff.net
In-Reply-To: <20110429164210.GA14937@kudu.in-berlin.de>

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On Fri, Apr 29, 2011 at 06:42:10PM +0200, Valentin Haenel wrote:

> is it possible to use some kind of magic to get 'git add -p' to display
> diff with '--color-words' option? I tried GIT_DIFF_OPTS but w/o success.

No, it's not currently. The output of --color-words cannot be applied as
a patch, so we would have to do something like diff an extra time, match
up the hunks, show the user one hunk, and then apply the other.

In fact, that is what we already do to get color at all. It works very
well there, since we know the hunks will match exactly. I'm not 100%
sure, though, that color-words will produce exactly the same set of
hunks that a regular line-oriented diff will. Which would be a problem.

-Peff

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