How should I use git diff for long lines?

Question

I\'m running git-diff on a file, but the change is at the end of a long line.

If I use cursor keys to move right, it loses colour-coding—and worse the lines do

Answer 1

Eight years later I find a superior answer, from https://superuser.com/questions/777617/line-wrapping-less-in-os-x-specifically-for-use-with-git-diff:

git config core.pager `fold -w 80 | less`

Now you pipe the git diff through fold, first, then to less: wrapped, less page-height is correct, keep syntax highlighting.

Answer 2

To use less as the pager and make line wrapping permanent you can simply enable the fold-long-lines option:

git config --global core.pager 'less -+S'

This way you do not have to type it while using less.

Cheers

Answer 3

Just googled up this one. GIT_PAGER='less -r' works for me

Answer 4

The display of the output of git diff is handled by whatever pager you are using.

Commonly, under Linux, less would be used.

You can tell git to use a different pager by setting the GIT_PAGER environment variable. If you don't mind about paging (for example, your terminal allows you to scroll back) you might try explicitly setting GIT_PAGER to empty to stop it using a pager. Under Linux:

$ GIT_PAGER='' git diff

Without a pager, the lines will wrap.

If your terminal doesn't support coloured output, you can also turn this off using either the --no-color argument, or putting an entry in the color section of your git config file.

$ GIT_PAGER='' git diff --no-color

Answer 5

Since Git 1.5.3 (Sep 2007)

a --no-pager option has been available.

git --no-pager diff

How do I prevent git diff from using a pager?

Example

Starting with v2.1, wrap is the default

Git v2.1 Release Notes

Answer 6

Not a perfect solution, but gitk and git-gui can both show this information, and have scrollbars.