Is it possible to use default two-pane view for viewing `$ git diff` output?

[Blake-LeBlanc]

Is it possible to use diffconflicts's excellent two-pane presentation to view differences between files? Vim's default terminal output of cramming everything into one giant single-column display can prove quite cumbersome when needing to identify and update a file's contents.

I've set up my .gitconfig with: [difftool "diffconflicts"]

When I launch a diff mode $ git diff <branch1> <branch2> I am given the following prompt: "Launch 'diffconflicts' [Y/n]"

And then only a single file opens into view.

Thank you again for your great plugin! And if this question is outside of the scope of this plugin, I apologize. Just tell me so and I'll gladly search for a solution elsewhere :)

All the best, Blake

[Blake-LeBlanc]

I think I just figured it out!

I set up the .gitconfig file as follows:

[merge]
  tool = diffconflicts
[mergetool "diffconflicts"]
  cmd = vim -c DiffConflicts \"$MERGED\" \"$BASE\" \"$LOCAL\" \"$REMOTE\"
  trustExitCode = true
[mergetool]
  keepBackup = false
[diff]
  tool = vimdiff
[difftool "vimdiff"]
  cmd = vimdiff "$LOCAL" "$REMOTE"

And while vim's bulit-in 'vimdiff' may not be the tool I'm ultimately wanting to use, what results is a view that looks surprisingly similar to that shown by diffconflicts (perhaps it is looking to the configured merge tool, causing it to use diffconflicts?).

Either way, the result is what I was looking for :+1:

Will leave open in case there is a more diffconflicts related approach the dev's would like to chime in with. Otherwise, feel free to close'er down!

[whiteinge]

Very intriguing use-case. Thanks for the follow-up with your solution! (I'm going to add that to my own .gitconfig too 😀.) I think you landed on the best solution even if the file-by-file invocations are slow-going.

Splitting/parsing a diff/patch file looks to be a little tough. Diffconflicts is a glorified sed search/replace and doesn't do anything so nuanced. Vim has a :diffpatch command that gets part of the way there. I wonder if there's a possible approach where we could load all the changed files in a Git comparison into the arglist, checkout the merge base, and then register a BufRead autocommand to run git diff <range> -- <currentfile> to make a temporary patch file and then :diffpatch the current file with that. 🤔 But if so, it wouldn't share any code with Diffconflicts and so would be better done as a separate plugin.

Thanks for raising the question!