# Followup: Managing EXCEL with git - diff problem.

2 messages from 2015-04-07 to 2015-04-07. Participants: Randall S. Becker, John Keeping.
Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/39025

## Randall S. Becker, 2015-04-07 12:55

Subject: Followup: Managing EXCEL with git - diff problem.
Message-ID: <02d801d07132$159f76a0$40de63e0$@nexbridge.com>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/02d801d07132%24159f76a0%2440de63e0%24%40nexbridge.com

```
Hi all,

There was a discussion a while back on how to manage EXCEL content in git.
This involved a simple trick of modifying the file extension from .xlsx to
.zip and unpacking the file - resulting in a whole bunch of XML files. Git
is happy with that part and the content can be managed - slightly.

Unfortunately, EXCEL stores its XML content in single lines. Git has no
problem with that either, as far as managing the content, but the lines can
be really long. However, after about 20K in size, while the config:

	alias.wdiff=diff --color-words

The ability of git to report differences goes away - as in no output from
git diff. This occurs on Windows and Linux under git 2.3.3 and git 2.3.0.
I'm not sure whether this is a user error, a usage error, or an actual
problem.

I had originally raised this as a SourceTree problem figuring it might be
there: https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/SRCTREEWIN-3145

Any advice (preferably no teasing - :-) - I am considering smudging but
would rather avoid that)?

Cheers,
Randall

-- Brief whoami: NonStop&UNIX developer since approximately
UNIX(421664400)/NonStop(211288444200000000)
-- In my real life, I talk too much.

```

## John Keeping, 2015-04-07 13:26

Subject: Re: Followup: Managing EXCEL with git - diff problem.
Message-ID: <20150407132628.GI21452@serenity.lan>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/20150407132628.GI21452%40serenity.lan
In-Reply-To: <02d801d07132$159f76a0$40de63e0$@nexbridge.com>

```
On Tue, Apr 07, 2015 at 08:55:11AM -0400, Randall S. Becker wrote:
> There was a discussion a while back on how to manage EXCEL content in git.
> This involved a simple trick of modifying the file extension from .xlsx to
> .zip and unpacking the file - resulting in a whole bunch of XML files. Git
> is happy with that part and the content can be managed - slightly.
> 
> Unfortunately, EXCEL stores its XML content in single lines. Git has no
> problem with that either, as far as managing the content, but the lines can
> be really long. However, after about 20K in size, while the config:
> 
> 	alias.wdiff=diff --color-words
> 
> The ability of git to report differences goes away - as in no output from
> git diff. This occurs on Windows and Linux under git 2.3.3 and git 2.3.0.
> I'm not sure whether this is a user error, a usage error, or an actual
> problem.
> 
> I had originally raised this as a SourceTree problem figuring it might be
> there: https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/SRCTREEWIN-3145
> 
> Any advice (preferably no teasing - :-) - I am considering smudging but
> would rather avoid that)?

Perhaps try defining a specific diff driver for these files (see
git-attributes(5)).  There is an xmldiff program [0] that might be able
to generate more useful diffs.

[0] http://www.logilab.org/project/xmldiff

```