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COLORDIFF(1)			  User Commands 		    COLORDIFF(1)

NAME
     colordiff - a tool to colorize diff output

SYNOPSIS
     colordiff [diff options] [colordiff options] {file1} {file2}

DESCRIPTION
     colordiff	is  a  wrapper for diff and produces the same output as diff but
     with coloured syntax highlighting at the command line to improve  readabil-
     ity.  The	output	is similar to how a diff-generated patch might appear in
     Vim or Emacs with the appropriate syntax highlighting options enabled.  The
     colour  schemes can be read from a central configuration file or from a lo-
     cal user ~/.colordiffrc file.

     colordiff makes use of ANSI colours and as such will only	work  when  ANSI
     colours  can  be  used - typical examples are xterms and Eterms, as well as
     console sessions.

     colordiff has been tested on various flavours of Linux and  under	OpenBSD,
     but should be broadly portable to other systems.

USAGE
     Use  colordiff wherever you would normally use diff, or instead pipe output
     to colordiff:

     For example:

	 $ colordiff file1 file2
	 $ diff -u file1 file2 | colordiff

     You can pipe the output to 'less', using the '-R' option (some  systems  or
     terminal  types may get better results using '-r' instead), which keeps the
     colour escape sequences, otherwise displayed incorrectly  or  discarded  by
     'less':

	 $ diff -u file1 file2 | colordiff | less -R

     If  you want to force disable colour escape sequences (for example pipe the
     output to patch), you can use option '--color=no' to do so:

	 $ diff -u file1 file2 | colordiff --color=no | patch -p0 -d another-working-dir

     If you have wdiff installed, colordiff will correctly colourise  the  added
     and removed text, provided that the '-n' option is given to wdiff:

	 $ wdiff -n file1 file2 | colordiff

     You  may  find it useful to make diff automatically call colordiff. Add the
     following line to ~/.bashrc (or equivalent):

	 alias diff=colordiff

     Any options passed to colordiff are passed through to diff except	for  the
     colordiff-specific option 'difftype', e.g.

	 colordiff --difftype=debdiff file1 file2

     Valid values for 'difftype' are: diff, diffc, diffu, diffy, wdiff, debdiff;
     these correspond to plain diffs, context diffs, unified diffs, side-by-side
     diffs,  wdiff  output  and debdiff output respectively. Use these overrides
     when colordiff is not able to determine the diff-type automatically.

     Alternatively, a construct such as 'cvs diff SOMETHING | colordiff' can  be
     included in ~/.bashrc as follows:

	 function cvsdiff () { cvs diff $@ | colordiff; }

     Or, combining the idea above using 'less':

	 function cvsdiff () { cvs diff $@ | colordiff |less -R; }

     Note that the function name, cvsdiff, can be customized.

     By  default  colordiff returns the exit code of the underlying diff invoca-
     tion (if there is one), but there are some circumstances where it is useful
     to force colordiff's exit code to be zero: to do this use the option '--fa-
     keexitcode':

	 colordiff --fakeexitcode ...

OPTIONS
     colordiff will send most options through to diff,	but  there  are  various
     colordiff-specific options which can be used:

     --help
	 Show these colordiff-specific options

     --color=(yes|no)
	 Force (or suppress) display of colours in output

     --color=patches=(yes|no)
	 Force (or suppress) inclusion of colour codes in patch output

     --color-term-output-only
	 Force colour to only appear in terminal output

     --difftype=DIFFTYPE
	 Force	difftype  detection  to specified format. DIFFTYPE can be: diff,
	 diffc, diffu, diffy, debdiff, wdiff

     --(no)banner
	 Show (or suppress) the colordiff banner

FILES
     /usr/local/etc/colordiffrc
	 Central configuration file. User-specific settings can  be  enabled  by
	 copying this file to ~/.colordiffrc and making the appropriate changes.

     colordiffrc-lightbg
	 Alternate  configuration  template  for use with terminals having light
	 backgrounds. Copy this to /usr/local/etc/colordiffrc or  ~/.colordiffrc
	 and customize.

     colordiffrc-gitdiff
	 Alternate  configuration  template  for  use with terminals having dark
	 backgrounds, with colour defaults set	to  match  the	output	of  'git
	 diff'.  Copy  this  to /usr/local/etc/colordiffrc or ~/.colordiffrc and
	 customize.

BUGS
     Bug reports and suggestions/patches to <davee@sungate.co.uk> please.

AUTHORS
     Dave Ewart
	 colordiff author and Debian packager

     Graham Wilson
	 Manual page and XML source author

     Colin Tuckley
	 Debian package sponsor

colordiff			   01/12/2026			    COLORDIFF(1)

Want to link to this manual page? Use this URL:
<https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=colordiff&sektion=1&manpath=FreeBSD+Ports+15.1.quarterly>

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