NAME

tdiff - interactive tree diff

SYNOPSIS

tdiff [options] dir1 dir2

Options

short	long	function
-g		generate diff data and exit
-m	--mode	modes: all/common/diff, default:common
-M		display manifest

DESCRIPTION

tdiff presents a diff between two directories, as one or two trees, highlighting differences.

I wrote tdiff because I couldn't find a TUI application with the functionality I needed. If you know of any please let me know.

I wrote tdiff for myself so it fits my needs and taste, and environment, but I hope it will be useful to other.

Ideas, discussions, and patches are welcome.

Highlighting

One or two trees with highlighted differences are displayed in the terminal depending on the mode.

• missing file in one of the trees are displayed with a red background
• files with differences have a yellow background

While working in tdiff you may modify, delete, or copy files, the background color will be adjusted to reflect the change.

• if you delete a file it will be displayed with a red background, lighter in color so you can see the difference between the files that didn't exist and those you have removed
• copied files are displayed with a blue background
• merged files are displayed with a green background

Modes

Default mode: common

mode	operation	usage
all	show all the files in the directories	for general directory diffs
common	show all the files that are different or deleted	for synchronizing directories
diff	show a single tree with the files that are different	for fixing merge conflicts
all_d2_only	show a single tree for directory 2	prototype mode with diffs in a single tree

Diff refresh

There are bindings to change mode but be aware that the mode trees are not automatically synchronized.

A quick explanation ...

• tdiff efficiently generates all the trees simultaneously before presenting its UI
• different modes have different trees
• interactive modification don't re-generated the trees, they only color them

What's the case to be aware of?

• in the modes that list identical files, all and d2_only
• you modify only one of the file, thus making them different
• you change to a mode which doesn't display identical files, common or diff

The file you have modified will not be listed because it wasn't in the tree when generated.

The above case is not different from a file being changed by another process.

You can manually refresh the diff.

Current entry and movements

tdiff's top line is the current entry.

Apart from the up/down movements you can:

• jump
  • to the next/previous change
  • to the next/previous difference
  • to the next/previous entry at the same path depth
  • to the next/previous entry at a lower path depth
• search for a changed file
• search for any file

Fixing differences in files, ie: git merge conflicts

Pressing Return will open the files in vimdiff (configurable)

If the auto_advance variable is set and the files are identical after editing, the next difference will be selected.

A file on one side and nothing on the other side

The file that exists will be open in vim.

Copy files and directories

You can copy files or directories from one side to the other using or . If you try to copy a file that doesn't exist the file in the other tree will be deleted.

Delete files or directories

You can delete files and directories on one side or on both sides.

File management

If you configure a file manager, you can open both tree in it, see the configuration for an example.

Divers functions

Copy the paths to the clipboard.

Bindings

See Paneless for default bindings https://github.com/nkh/paneless

Tdiff bindings

binding	function
?	show bindings
r	refresh diff
m/M	next/previous mode
n/N	next/previous change
v/V	next/previous difference
a	scroll up one level
z	scroll down one level
s	scroll up same level
x	scroll down same level
b	fzf to diff
B	fzf to file
dd	delete both sides
dl	delete left side
dr	delete right side
cl	copy to left side
cr	copy to right side
yy	copy both path to clipboard
yl	copy left path to clipboard
yr	copy right path to clipboard
ENTER	open diff/file/directory
F	open file manager
i	display stats
AL	flip Action Left
ZL	flip line number overlay
ZL	flip line total

CONFIGURATION

At the top of the tdiff.pless file you will find these configuration variables, they will be moved to a configuration file in future versions.

# diff colors
DELETED=$'...'
DIFF=$'...'
ONLY=$'...'

# color for elements you have manipulated
INT_DELETED=$'...'
INT_DIFF=$'...'
INT_COPIED=$'...'
INT_SYNCHED=$'...'

auto_advance=1             # go to next file diff automatically
confirmation=              # set to 1 to confirm actions
left_side_action=1         # allow "delete in" / "copy to" the left side tree 

DIFF_TOOL=vimdiff
FILE_EDIT=vim
DIR_EDIT=open_in_ftl

open_in_ftl() { tabs= ; for p in "$PWD/$1/$3" "$PWD/$2/$3" ; do [[ -e "$p" ]] && tabs+="$p$'\n'" ; done ; tmux new-window "ftl -t <(echo -n "$tabs")" ; }

They reflect my environment so you'll need to set them up if they don't match yours. You certainly will have to set your file manager.

Extra Config

Sort order

LC_COLLATE=C tdiff test1 test2

Limiting entry types by passing argument to find(1)

TDFA='-type d' tdiff test/dir*

DEPENDENCIES

• Bash
• diff
• tree
• Paneless https://github.com/nkh/paneless
• Perl
• Awk
• FZF

INSTALL

Clone the repository and add it to your PATH; or link/copy the files to somewhere in your PATH.

CONFIGURATION

The tdiff file you run contains the configuration and bindings (press 'c' to see the bindings in FZF).

AUTHORS

Khemir Nadim ibn Hamouda
https://github.com/nkh
CPAN ID: NKH

LICENCE

© Nadim Khemir 2023, Artistic licence 2.0