Vim not highlighting whitespace in git patch

Question

I have followed the advice in this post for coloring white space in git diffs. However, I don't often use diffs, so this was helpful to me in something I do use often, git add -p, or patch mode. As of now, git will show me when I add a whitespace error. That is, it will highlight it on the end of a line. (I can't replicate this with a code example here because of the highlighting.) But when I remove a whitespace error, it looks like this:

-  def method_name
+  def method_name

Where there used to the a whitespace error on the end of the first line and it is deleted in the second. This isn't very helpful, because the lines look identical. So how can I get it to show the highlighting of a deleted whitespace error?

Note: I am using MacVim.

EDIT: The other issue is that if I try to git diff -R (reverse), then it looks like I added a whitespace error instead of removing it, and that's confusing.

In the link you referred, its says that there is no way to show if whitespace is removed. Only when its added can it be displayed. — Bhaskar, Mar 19 '13 at 23:25
I wasn't rejecting the possibility that it could be something with my `.vimrc` or something. — nickcoxdotme, Mar 19 '13 at 23:45
But vim is not part of this process at all? How is vim more related to this question than excel? — Chronial, Mar 21 '13 at 01:43

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 19 '13 at 23:27

You can’t. All I have to offer are two mildly helpful tips:

Regarding git add: If you see something like the situation you mentioned and you did not mess with tabs, you can be sure that you removed whitespace at the end of the line.
Regarding git diff -R: Well, just remember that you are running -R :)

Vim not highlighting whitespace in git patch

1 Answers1