A viewer for git and diff output
Usage: delta [OPTIONS] [MINUS_FILE] [PLUS_FILE]
Arguments:
[MINUS_FILE]
First file to be compared when delta is being used to diff two
files.
`delta file1 file2` is equivalent to `diff -u file1 file2 | delta`.
[PLUS_FILE]
Second file to be compared when delta is being used to diff two
files
Options:
--blame-code-style <STYLE>
Style string for the code section of a git blame line.
By default the code will be syntax-highlighted with the same
background color as the blame format section of the line (the
background color is determined by blame-palette). E.g. setting this
option to 'syntax' will syntax-highlight the code with no
background color.
--blame-format <FMT>
Format string for git blame commit metadata.
Available placeholders are "{timestamp}", "{author}", and
"{commit}".
[default: "{timestamp:<15} {author:<15.14} {commit:<8}"]
--blame-palette <COLORS>
Background colors used for git blame lines (space-separated
string).
Lines added by the same commit are painted with the same color;
colors are recycled as needed.
--blame-separator-format <FMT>
Separator between the blame format and the code section of a git
blame line.
Contains the line number by default. Possible values are "none" to
disable line numbers or a format string. This may contain one
"{n:}" placeholder and will display the line number on every line.
A type may be added after all other format specifiers and can be
separated by '_': If type is set to 'block' (e.g. "{n:^4_block}")
the line number will only be shown when a new blame block starts;
or if it is set to 'every-N' the line will be show with every block
and every N-th (modulo) line.
[default: │{n:^4}│]
--blame-separator-style <STYLE>
Style string for the blame-separator-format
--blame-timestamp-format <FMT>
Format of `git blame` timestamp in raw git output received by delta
[default: "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S %z"]
--blame-timestamp-output-format <FMT>
Format string for git blame timestamp output.
This string is used for formatting the timestamps in git blame
output. It must follow the `strftime` format syntax specification.
If it is not present, the timestamps will be formatted in a
human-friendly but possibly less accurate form.
See:
<https://docs.rs/chrono/latest/chrono/format/strftime/index.html>
--color-only
Do not alter the input structurally in any way.
But color and highlight hunk lines according to your delta
configuration. This is mainly intended for other tools that use
delta.
--config <PATH>
Load the config file at PATH instead of ~/.gitconfig
[default: ]
--commit-decoration-style <STYLE>
Style string for the commit hash decoration.
See STYLES section. The style string should contain one of the
special attributes 'box', 'ul' (underline), 'ol' (overline), or the
combination 'ul ol'.
[default: ]
--commit-regex <REGEX>
Regular expression used to identify the commit line when parsing
git output
[default: "^commit "]
--commit-style <STYLE>
Style string for the commit hash line.
See STYLES section. The style 'omit' can be used to remove the
commit hash line from the output.
[default: raw]
--dark
Use default colors appropriate for a dark terminal background.
For more control, see the style options and --syntax-theme.
--default-language <LANG>
Default language used for syntax highlighting.
Used as a fallback when the language cannot be inferred from a
filename. It will typically make sense to set this in the
per-repository config file '.git/config'.
[default: txt]
--detect-dark-light <DETECT_DARK_LIGHT>
Detect whether or not the terminal is dark or light by querying for
its colors.
Ignored if either `--dark` or `--light` is specified.
Querying the terminal for its colors requires "exclusive" access
since delta reads/writes from the terminal and enables/disables raw
mode. This causes race conditions with pagers such as less when
they are attached to the same terminal as delta.
This is usually only an issue when the output is manually piped to
a pager. For example: `git diff | delta | less`. Otherwise, if
delta starts the pager itself, then there's no race condition since
the pager is started *after* the color is detected.
`auto` tries to account for these situations by testing if the
output is redirected.
The `--color-only` option is treated as an indicator that delta is
used as `interactive.diffFilter`. In this case the color is queried
from the terminal even though the output is redirected.
[default: auto]
Possible values:
- auto: Only query the terminal for its colors if the output is
not redirected
- always: Always query the terminal for its colors
- never: Never query the terminal for its colors
-@, --diff-args <STRING>
Extra arguments to pass to `git diff` when using delta to diff two
files.
E.g. `delta --diff-args=-U999 file_1 file_2` is equivalent to `git
diff --no-index --color -U999 file_1 file_2 | delta`.
If you use process substitution (`delta <(command_1) <(command_2)`)
and your git version doesn't support it, then delta will fall back
to `diff` instead of `git diff`.
[default: ]
--diff-highlight
Emulate diff-highlight.
<https://github.com/git/git/tree/master/contrib/diff-highlight>
--diff-so-fancy
Emulate diff-so-fancy.
<https://github.com/so-fancy/diff-so-fancy>
--diff-stat-align-width <N>
Width allocated for file paths in a diff stat section.
If a relativized file path exceeds this width then the diff stat
will be misaligned.
[default: 48]
--features <FEATURES>
Names of delta features to activate (space-separated).
A feature is a named collection of delta options in ~/.gitconfig.
See FEATURES section. The environment variable DELTA_FEATURES can
be set to a space-separated list of feature names. If this is
preceded with a + character, the features from the environment
variable will be added to those specified in git config. E.g.
DELTA_FEATURES=+side-by-side can be used to activate side-by-side
temporarily (use DELTA_FEATURES=+ to go back to just the features
from git config).
--file-added-label <STRING>
Text to display before an added file path.
Used in the default value of navigate-regex.
[default: added:]
--file-copied-label <STRING>
Text to display before a copied file path
[default: copied:]
--file-decoration-style <STYLE>
Style string for the file decoration.
See STYLES section. The style string should contain one of the
special attributes 'box', 'ul' (underline), 'ol' (overline), or the
combination 'ul ol'.
[default: "blue ul"]
--file-modified-label <STRING>
Text to display before a modified file path.
Used in the default value of navigate-regex.
[default: ]
--file-removed-label <STRING>
Text to display before a removed file path.
Used in the default value of navigate-regex.
[default: removed:]
--file-renamed-label <STRING>
Text to display before a renamed file path.
Used in the default value of navigate-regex.
[default: renamed:]
--file-style <STYLE>
Style string for the file section.
See STYLES section. The style 'omit' can be used to remove the file
section from the output.
[default: blue]
--file-transformation <SED_CMD>
Sed-style command transforming file paths for display
--generate-completion <GENERATE_COMPLETION>
Print completion file for the given shell
[possible values: bash, elvish, fish, powershell, zsh]
--grep-context-line-style <STYLE>
Style string for non-matching lines of grep output.
See STYLES section. Defaults to zero-style.
--grep-file-style <STYLE>
Style string for file paths in grep output.
See STYLES section.
[default: magenta]
--grep-header-decoration-style <STYLE>
Style string for the header decoration in grep output.
Default is "none" when grep-output-type-is "ripgrep", otherwise
defaults to value of header-decoration-style. See
hunk-header-decoration-style.
--grep-header-file-style <STYLE>
Style string for the file path part of the header in grep output.
See hunk_header_file_style.
--grep-line-number-style <STYLE>
Style string for line numbers in grep output.
See STYLES section.
[default: green]
--grep-output-type <OUTPUT_TYPE>
Grep output format. Possible values: "ripgrep" - file name printed
once, followed by matching lines within that file, each preceded by
a line number. "classic" - file name:line number, followed by
matching line. Default is "ripgrep" if `rg --json` format is
detected, otherwise "classic"
[possible values: ripgrep, classic]
--grep-match-line-style <STYLE>
Style string for matching lines of grep output.
See STYLES section. Defaults to plus-style.
--grep-match-word-style <STYLE>
Style string for the matching substrings within a matching line of
grep output.
See STYLES section. Defaults to plus-style.
--grep-separator-symbol <STRING>
Separator symbol printed after the file path and line number in
grep output.
Defaults to ":" for both match and context lines, since many
terminal emulators recognize constructs like "/path/to/file:7:".
However, standard grep output uses "-" for context lines: set this
option to "keep" to keep the original separator symbols.
[default: :]
--hunk-header-decoration-style <STYLE>
Style string for the hunk-header decoration.
See STYLES section. The style string should contain one of the
special attributes 'box', 'ul' (underline), 'ol' (overline), or the
combination 'ul ol'.
[default: "blue box"]
--hunk-header-file-style <STYLE>
Style string for the file path part of the hunk-header.
See STYLES section. The file path will only be displayed if
hunk-header-style contains the 'file' special attribute.
[default: blue]
--hunk-header-line-number-style <STYLE>
Style string for the line number part of the hunk-header.
See STYLES section. The line number will only be displayed if
hunk-header-style contains the 'line-number' special attribute.
[default: blue]
--hunk-header-style <STYLE>
Style string for the hunk-header.
See STYLES section. Special attributes 'file' and 'line-number' can
be used to include the file path, and number of first hunk line, in
the hunk header. The style 'omit' can be used to remove the hunk
header section from the output.
[default: "line-number syntax"]
--hunk-label <STRING>
Text to display before a hunk header.
Used in the default value of navigate-regex.
[default: ]
--hyperlinks
Render commit hashes, file names, and line numbers as hyperlinks.
Following the hyperlink spec for terminal emulators:
<https://gist.github.com/egmontkob/eb114294efbcd5adb1944c9f3cb5feda>.
By default, file names and line numbers link to the local file
using a file URL, whereas commit hashes link to the commit in
GitHub, if the remote repository is hosted by GitHub. See
--hyperlinks-file-link-format for full control over the file URLs
emitted. Hyperlinks are supported by several common terminal
emulators. To make them work, you must use less version >= 581 with
the -R flag (or use -r with older less versions, but this will
break e.g. --navigate). If you use tmux, then you will also need a
patched fork of tmux (see <https://github.com/dandavison/tmux>).
--hyperlinks-commit-link-format <FMT>
Format string for commit hyperlinks (requires --hyperlinks).
The placeholder "{commit}" will be replaced by the commit hash. For
example:
--hyperlinks-commit-link-format='https://mygitrepo/{commit}/'
--hyperlinks-file-link-format <FMT>
Format string for file hyperlinks (requires --hyperlinks).
The placeholders "{path}" and "{line}" will be replaced by the
absolute file path and the line number, respectively. The default
value of this option creates hyperlinks using standard file URLs;
your operating system should open these in the application
registered for that file type. However, these do not make use of
the line number. In order for the link to open the file at the
correct line number, you could use a custom URL format such as
"file-line://{path}:{line}" and register an application to handle
the custom "file-line" URL scheme by opening the file in your
editor/IDE at the indicated line number. See
<https://github.com/dandavison/open-in-editor> for an example.
[default: file://{path}]
--inline-hint-style <STYLE>
Style string for short inline hint text.
This styles certain content added by delta to the original diff
such as special characters to highlight tabs, and the symbols used
to indicate wrapped lines. See STYLES section.
[default: blue]
--inspect-raw-lines <true|false>
Kill-switch for --color-moved support.
Whether to examine ANSI color escape sequences in raw lines
received from Git and handle lines colored in certain ways
specially. This is on by default: it is how Delta supports Git's
--color-moved feature. Set this to "false" to disable this
behavior.
[default: true]
[possible values: true, false]
--keep-plus-minus-markers
Prefix added/removed lines with a +/- character, as git does.
By default, delta does not emit any prefix, so code can be copied
directly from delta's output.
--light
Use default colors appropriate for a light terminal background.
For more control, see the style options and --syntax-theme.
--line-buffer-size <N>
Size of internal line buffer.
Delta compares the added and removed versions of nearby lines in
order to detect and highlight changes at the level of individual
words/tokens. Therefore, nearby lines must be buffered internally
before they are painted and emitted. Increasing this value might
improve highlighting of some large diff hunks. However, setting
this to a high value will adversely affect delta's performance when
entire files are added/removed.
[default: 32]
--line-fill-method <STRING>
Line-fill method in side-by-side mode.
How to extend the background color to the end of the line in
side-by-side mode. Can be ansi (default) or spaces (default if
output is not to a terminal). Has no effect if --width=variable is
given.
[possible values: ansi, spaces]
-n, --line-numbers
Display line numbers next to the diff.
See LINE NUMBERS section.
--line-numbers-left-format <FMT>
Format string for the left column of line numbers.
A typical value would be "{nm:^4}⋮" which means to display the line
numbers of the minus file (old version), center-aligned, padded to
a width of 4 characters, followed by a dividing character. See the
LINE NUMBERS section.
[default: {nm:^4}⋮]
--line-numbers-left-style <STYLE>
Style string for the left column of line numbers.
See STYLES and LINE NUMBERS sections.
[default: auto]
--line-numbers-minus-style <STYLE>
Style string for line numbers in the old (minus) version of the
file.
See STYLES and LINE NUMBERS sections.
[default: auto]
--line-numbers-plus-style <STYLE>
Style string for line numbers in the new (plus) version of the
file.
See STYLES and LINE NUMBERS sections.
[default: auto]
--line-numbers-right-format <FMT>
Format string for the right column of line numbers.
A typical value would be "{np:^4}│ " which means to display the
line numbers of the plus file (new version), center-aligned, padded
to a width of 4 characters, followed by a dividing character, and a
space. See the LINE NUMBERS section.
[default: {np:^4}│]
--line-numbers-right-style <STYLE>
Style string for the right column of line numbers.
See STYLES and LINE NUMBERS sections.
[default: auto]
--line-numbers-zero-style <STYLE>
Style string for line numbers in unchanged (zero) lines.
See STYLES and LINE NUMBERS sections.
[default: auto]
--list-languages
List supported languages and associated file extensions
--list-syntax-themes
List available syntax-highlighting color themes
--map-styles <STYLES_MAP>
Map styles encountered in raw input to desired output styles.
An example is --map-styles='bold purple => red "#eeeeee", bold cyan
=> syntax "#eeeeee"'
--max-line-distance <DIST>
Maximum line pair distance parameter in within-line diff algorithm.
This parameter is the maximum distance (0.0 - 1.0) between two
lines for them to be inferred to be homologous. Homologous line
pairs are highlighted according to the deletion and insertion
operations transforming one into the other.
[default: 0.6]
--max-syntax-highlighting-length <N>
Stop syntax highlighting lines after this many characters.
To always highlight entire lines, set to zero - but note that delta
will be slow on very long lines (e.g. minified .js).
[default: 400]
--max-line-length <N>
Truncate lines longer than this.
To prevent any truncation, set to zero. When wrapping lines this
does nothing as it is overwritten to fit at least all visible
characters, see `--wrap-max-lines`.
[default: 3000]
--merge-conflict-begin-symbol <STRING>
String marking the beginning of a merge conflict region.
The string will be repeated until it reaches the required length.
[default: ▼]
--merge-conflict-end-symbol <STRING>
String marking the end of a merge conflict region.
The string will be repeated until it reaches the required length.
[default: ▲]
--merge-conflict-ours-diff-header-decoration-style <STYLE>
Style string for the decoration of the header above the 'ours'
merge conflict diff.
This styles the decoration of the header above the diff between the
ancestral commit and the 'ours' branch. See STYLES section. The
style string should contain one of the special attributes 'box',
'ul' (underline), 'ol' (overline), or the combination 'ul ol'.
[default: box]
--merge-conflict-ours-diff-header-style <STYLE>
Style string for the header above the 'ours' branch merge conflict
diff.
See STYLES section.
[default: normal]
--merge-conflict-theirs-diff-header-decoration-style <STYLE>
Style string for the decoration of the header above the 'theirs'
merge conflict diff.
This styles the decoration of the header above the diff between the
ancestral commit and 'their' branch. See STYLES section. The style
string should contain one of the special attributes 'box', 'ul'
(underline), 'ol' (overline), or the combination 'ul ol'.
[default: box]
--merge-conflict-theirs-diff-header-style <STYLE>
Style string for the header above the 'theirs' branch merge
conflict diff.
This styles the header above the diff between the ancestral commit
and 'their' branch. See STYLES section.
[default: normal]
--minus-empty-line-marker-style <STYLE>
Style string for removed empty line marker.
Used only if --minus-style has no background color.
[default: "normal auto"]
--minus-emph-style <STYLE>
Style string for emphasized sections of removed lines.
See STYLES section.
[default: "normal auto"]
--minus-non-emph-style <STYLE>
Style string for non-emphasized sections of removed lines that have
an emphasized section.
See STYLES section.
[default: minus-style]
--minus-style <STYLE>
Style string for removed lines.
See STYLES section.
[default: "normal auto"]
--navigate
Activate diff navigation.
Use n to jump forwards and N to jump backwards. To change the file
labels used see --file-added-label, --file-copied-label,
--file-modified-label, --file-removed-label, --file-renamed-label.
--navigate-regex <REGEX>
Regular expression defining navigation stop points
--no-gitconfig
Do not read any settings from git config.
See GIT CONFIG section.
--pager <CMD>
Which pager to use.
The default pager is `less`. You can also change pager by setting
the environment variable DELTA_PAGER, or PAGER. This option
overrides these environment variables.
--paging <auto|always|never>
Whether to use a pager when displaying output.
Options are: auto, always, and never.
[default: auto]
[possible values: auto, always, never]
--parse-ansi
Display ANSI color escape sequences in human-readable form.
Example usage: git show --color=always | delta --parse-ansi This
can be used to help identify input style strings to use with
map-styles.
--plus-emph-style <STYLE>
Style string for emphasized sections of added lines.
See STYLES section.
[default: "syntax auto"]
--plus-empty-line-marker-style <STYLE>
Style string for added empty line marker.
Used only if --plus-style has no background color.
[default: "normal auto"]
--plus-non-emph-style <STYLE>
Style string for non-emphasized sections of added lines that have
an emphasized section.
See STYLES section.
[default: plus-style]
--plus-style <STYLE>
Style string for added lines.
See STYLES section.
[default: "syntax auto"]
--raw
Do not alter the input in any way.
This is mainly intended for testing delta.
--relative-paths
Output all file paths relative to the current directory.
This means that they will resolve correctly when clicked on or used
in shell commands.
--right-arrow <STRING>
Text to display with a changed file path.
For example, a unified diff heading, a rename, or a chmod.
[default: "⟶ "]
--show-colors
Show available named colors.
In addition to named colors, arbitrary colors can be specified
using RGB hex codes. See COLORS section.
--show-config
Display the active values for all Delta options.
Style string options are displayed with foreground and background
colors. This can be used to experiment with colors by combining
this option with other options such as --minus-style, --zero-style,
--plus-style, --light, --dark, etc.
--show-syntax-themes
Show example diff for available syntax-highlighting themes.
If diff output is supplied on standard input then this will be used
for the demo. For example: `git show | delta --show-syntax-themes`.
--show-themes
Show example diff for available delta themes.
A delta theme is a delta named feature (see --features) that sets
either `light` or `dark`. See
<https://github.com/dandavison/delta#custom-color-themes>. If diff
output is supplied on standard input then this will be used for the
demo. For example: `git show | delta --show-themes`. By default
shows dark or light themes only, according to whether delta is in
dark or light mode (as set by the user or inferred from BAT_THEME).
To control the themes shown, use --dark or --light, or both, on the
command line together with this option.
-s, --side-by-side
Display diffs in side-by-side layout
--syntax-theme <SYNTAX_THEME>
The syntax-highlighting theme to use.
Use --show-syntax-themes to demo available themes. Defaults to the
value of the BAT_THEME environment variable, if that contains a
valid theme name. --syntax-theme=none disables all syntax
highlighting.
--tabs <N>
The number of spaces to replace tab characters with.
Use --tabs=0 to pass tab characters through directly, but note that
in that case delta will calculate line widths assuming tabs occupy
one character's width on the screen: if your terminal renders tabs
as more than one character wide then delta's output will look
incorrect.
[default: 8]
--true-color <auto|always|never>
Whether to emit 24-bit ("true color") RGB color codes.
Options are auto, always, and never. "auto" means that delta will
emit 24-bit color codes if the environment variable COLORTERM has
the value "truecolor" or "24bit". If your terminal application (the
application you use to enter commands at a shell prompt) supports
24 bit colors, then it probably already sets this environment
variable, in which case you don't need to do anything.
[default: auto]
[possible values: auto, always, never]
--whitespace-error-style <STYLE>
Style string for whitespace errors.
Defaults to color.diff.whitespace if that is set in git config, or
else 'magenta reverse'.
[default: "auto auto"]
-w, --width <N>
The width of underline/overline decorations.
Examples: "72" (exactly 72 characters), "-2" (auto-detected
terminal width minus 2). An expression such as "74-2" is also valid
(equivalent to 72 but may be useful if the caller has a variable
holding the value "74"). Use --width=variable to extend decorations
and background colors to the end of the text only. Otherwise
background colors extend to the full terminal width.
--word-diff-regex <REGEX>
Regular expression defining a 'word' in within-line diff algorithm.
The regular expression used to decide what a word is for the
within-line highlight algorithm. For less fine-grained matching
than the default try --word-diff-regex="\S+"
--max-line-distance=1.0 (this is more similar to `git
--word-diff`).
[default: \w+]
--wrap-left-symbol <STRING>
End-of-line wrapped content symbol (left-aligned).
Symbol added to the end of a line indicating that the content has
been wrapped onto the next line and continues left-aligned.
[default: ↵]
--wrap-max-lines <N>
How often a line should be wrapped if it does not fit.
Zero means to never wrap. Any content which does not fit after
wrapping will be truncated. A value of "unlimited" means a line
will be wrapped as many times as required.
[default: 2]
--wrap-right-percent <PERCENT>
Threshold for right-aligning wrapped content.
If the length of the remaining wrapped content, as a percentage of
width, is less than this quantity it will be right-aligned.
Otherwise it will be left-aligned.
[default: 37.0]
--wrap-right-prefix-symbol <STRING>
Pre-wrapped content symbol (right-aligned).
Symbol displayed before right-aligned wrapped content.
[default: …]
--wrap-right-symbol <STRING>
End-of-line wrapped content symbol (right-aligned).
Symbol added to the end of a line indicating that the content has
been wrapped onto the next line and continues right-aligned.
[default: ↴]
--zero-style <STYLE>
Style string for unchanged lines.
See STYLES section.
[default: "syntax normal"]
--24-bit-color <auto|always|never>
Deprecated: use --true-color
[possible values: auto, always, never]
-h, --help
Print help (see a summary with '-h')
-V, --version
Print version
Git config
By default, delta takes settings from a section named "delta" in git config
files, if one is present. The git config file to use for delta options will
usually be ~/.gitconfig, but delta follows the rules given in
<https://git-scm.com/docs/git-config#FILES>. Most delta options can be
given in a git config file, using the usual option names but without the
initial '--'. An example is
[delta]
line-numbers = true
zero-style = dim syntax
Features
A feature is a named collection of delta options in git config. An example
is:
[delta "my-delta-feature"]
syntax-theme = Dracula
plus-style = bold syntax "#002800"
To activate those options, you would use:
delta --features my-delta-feature
A feature name may not contain whitespace. You can activate multiple
features:
[delta]
features = my-highlight-styles-colors-feature my-line-number-styles-feature
If more than one feature sets the same option, the last one wins.
If an option is present in the [delta] section, then features are not
considered at all.
If you want an option to be fully overridable by a feature and also have a
non default value when no features are used, then you need to define a
"default" feature and include it in the main delta configuration.
For instance:
[delta]
feature = default-feature
[delta "default-feature"]
width = 123
At this point, you can override features set in the command line or in the
environment variables and the "last one wins" rules will apply as expected.
Styles
All options that have a name like --*-style work the same way. It is very
similar to how colors/styles are specified in a gitconfig file:
<https://git-scm.com/docs/git-config#Documentation/git-config.txt-color>
Here is an example:
--minus-style 'red bold ul "#ffeeee"'
That means: For removed lines, set the foreground (text) color to 'red',
make it bold and underlined, and set the background color to '#ffeeee'.
See the Colors section below for how to specify a color. In addition to
real colors, there are 4 special color names: 'auto', 'normal', 'raw', and
'syntax'.
Here is an example of using special color names together with a single
attribute:
--minus-style 'syntax bold auto'
That means: For removed lines, syntax-highlight the text, and make it bold,
and do whatever delta normally does for the background.
The available attributes are: 'blink', 'bold', 'dim', 'hidden', 'italic',
'reverse', 'strike', and 'ul' (or 'underline').
The attribute 'omit' is supported by commit-style, file-style, and
hunk-header-style, meaning to remove the element entirely from the output.
A complete description of the style string syntax follows:
- If the input that delta is receiving already has colors, and you want
delta to output those colors unchanged, then use the special style string
'raw'. Otherwise, delta will strip any colors from its input.
- A style string consists of 0, 1, or 2 colors, together with an arbitrary
number of style attributes, all separated by spaces.
- The first color is the foreground (text) color. The second color is the
background color. Attributes can go in any position.
- This means that in order to specify a background color you must also
specify a foreground (text) color.
- If you want delta to choose one of the colors automatically, then use the
special color 'auto'. This can be used for both foreground and
background.
- If you want the foreground/background color to be your terminal's
foreground/background color, then use the special color 'normal'.
- If you want the foreground text to be syntax-highlighted according to its
language, then use the special foreground color 'syntax'. This can only
be used for the foreground (text).
- The minimal style specification is the empty string ''. This means: do
not apply any colors or styling to the element in question.
Colors
There are four ways to specify a color (this section applies to foreground
and background colors within a style string):
1. CSS color name
Any of the 140 color names used in CSS:
<https://www.w3schools.com/colors/colors_groups.asp>
2. RGB hex code
An example of using an RGB hex code is:
--file-style="#0e7c0e"
3. ANSI color name
There are 8 ANSI color names:
black, red, green, yellow, blue, magenta, cyan, white.
In addition, all of them have a bright form:
brightblack, brightred, brightgreen, brightyellow, brightblue,
brightmagenta, brightcyan, brightwhite.
An example of using an ANSI color name is:
--file-style="green"
Unlike RGB hex codes, ANSI color names are just names: you can choose
the exact color that each name corresponds to in the settings of your
terminal application (the application you use to enter commands at a
shell prompt). This means that if you use ANSI color names, and you
change the color theme used by your terminal, then delta's colors will
respond automatically, without needing to change the delta command line.
"purple" is accepted as a synonym for "magenta". Color names and codes
are case-insensitive.
4. ANSI color number
An example of using an ANSI color number is:
--file-style=28
There are 256 ANSI color numbers: 0-255. The first 16 are the same as
the colors described in the "ANSI color name" section above. See
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANSI_escape_code#8-bit>. Specifying
colors like this is useful if your terminal only supports 256 colors
(i.e. doesn't support 24-bit color).
Line Numbers
To display line numbers, use --line-numbers.
Line numbers are displayed in two columns. Here's what it looks like by
default:
1 ⋮ 1 │ unchanged line
2 ⋮ │ removed line
⋮ 2 │ added line
In that output, the line numbers for the old (minus) version of the file
appear in the left column, and the line numbers for the new (plus) version
of the file appear in the right column. In an unchanged (zero) line, both
columns contain a line number.
The following options allow the line number display to be customized:
--line-numbers-left-format: Change the contents of the left column
--line-numbers-right-format: Change the contents of the right column
--line-numbers-left-style: Change the style applied to the left column
--line-numbers-right-style: Change the style applied to the right column
--line-numbers-minus-style: Change the style applied to line numbers in
minus lines
--line-numbers-zero-style: Change the style applied to line numbers in
unchanged lines
--line-numbers-plus-style: Change the style applied to line numbers in
plus lines
Options --line-numbers-left-format and --line-numbers-right-format allow
you to change the contents of the line number columns. Their values are
arbitrary format strings, which are allowed to contain the placeholders
{nm} for the line number associated with the old version of the file and
{np} for the line number associated with the new version of the file. The
placeholders support a subset of the string formatting syntax documented
here: <https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/fmt/#formatting-parameters>.
Specifically, you can use the alignment and width syntax.
For example, the default value of --line-numbers-left-format is '{nm:^4}⋮'.
This means that the left column should display the minus line number (nm),
center-aligned, padded with spaces to a width of 4 characters, followed by
a unicode dividing-line character (⋮).
Similarly, the default value of --line-numbers-right-format is '{np:^4}│'.
This means that the right column should display the plus line number (np),
center-aligned, padded with spaces to a width of 4 characters, followed by
a unicode dividing-line character (│).
Use '<' for left-align, '^' for center-align, and '>' for right-align.
Support
If something isn't working correctly, or you have a feature request, please
open an issue at <https://github.com/dandavison/delta/issues>.
For a short help summary, please use delta -h.