icdiff

Side-by-side colored diff with intra-line change highlighting.

Author: Jeff Kaufman
Alternative to: diff
Language: Python
This page last updated:

icdiff improves on the standard diff command by displaying differences in a two-column side-by-side view with color-coded highlighting, making it much easier to spot what changed at a glance.

Features

  • Two-column side-by-side view with color-coded changes
  • Intra-line highlighting to show exactly which characters changed
  • Optional line numbers
  • Recursive directory comparison
  • Integration with Git, Subversion, and Mercurial via git icdiff
  • Customizable color map for different diff elements
  • Context line control and whole-file display option
  • Whitespace highlighting
  • Support for multiple file encodings
icdiff showing a two-column side-by-side diff with color highlighting
icdiff showing a two-column side-by-side diff with color highlighting

Notable options

  • --highlight: Changes background color instead of foreground for highlighted diffs
  • --line-numbers: Adds line numbers to the output
  • --recursive: Compares subdirectories
  • --whole-file: Displays entire files rather than just changed sections
  • --color-map: Customizes the color scheme for different diff elements

Installation

Available via pip install icdiff, apt install icdiff, brew install icdiff, AUR, and Nix.