Git: show more context when using git add -i or git add -e?

Question

I'm selectively committing parts of a large file and I'd like to see more context around each hunk. Is this possible?

score 178 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 15 '11 at 20:45

178

Short answer: no.

git diff has the -U<n> option which allows you to customize the number of lines to show around a change. For example, git diff -U5 ... will show 5 lines of context. As far as I can tell, there is no such option available for the diff display in the interactive mode.

answered Jul 15 '11 at 20:45

hammar

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Is there a `-U` option to show the whole file? (Or is a large number "good enough"?) – titaniumdecoy Mar 21 '12 at 00:51
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I'd like to mention that the number in `git diff -U` is used on both sides of each changed line. So if you have one line changed, `git diff -U5` will show you 11 lines (assuming the one line isn't at the start of end of the file.) – ArtOfWarfare Oct 17 '13 at 12:46
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This is for `git diff` not for `git add --patch` or `git add --interactive` – 0xcaff Jun 08 '14 at 23:33
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@titaniumdecoy, I posted that as a separate question http://stackoverflow.com/questions/28727424/for-git-diff-is-there-a-uinfinity-option-to-show-the-whole-file – Aleksandr Levchuk Feb 25 '15 at 19:01
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Still no solution? – Vitaly Zdanevich Oct 10 '18 at 08:21

score 8 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 26 '22 at 15:15

8

This is possible using the GIT_DIFF_OPTS environment variable.

For example:

GIT_DIFF_OPTS=-u10 git add -p

will display 10 lines of context.

See https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Git-Internals-Environment-Variables#_diffing_and_merging .

answered Oct 26 '22 at 15:15

pavels

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Note this also works with `git show`. – Błażej Michalik Jul 26 '23 at 08:55

score 4 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 13 '19 at 18:26

To confirm, this is still not possible in 2019.

An external tool like jjlee/git-meld-index can help:

git-meld-index runs meld -- or any other git difftool (kdiff3, diffuse, etc.) -- to allow you to interactively stage changes to the git index (also known as the git staging area).

This is similar to the functionality of git add -p, and git add --interactive.

In some cases meld is easier / quicker to use than git add -p or the staging feature in tools like git gui.
That's because meld allows you, for example, to:

see more context,

see intra-line diffs

edit by hand and see 'live' diff updates (updated after every keypress)

navigate to a change without saying 'n' to every change you want to skip

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 17 '21 at 23:25

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I just want to add that you can get the diff with full context using a solution like this https://stackoverflow.com/a/40683517/15410684 by Ezra.

git diff -U$(wc -l MYFILE)

gets you pretty close

answered Mar 17 '21 at 23:25

Nate S.

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Git: show more context when using git add -i or git add -e?

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