22

Is there a way to highlight the syntax of a diff file (i.e. by using the listings package)?

Martin Scharrer
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GaretJax
  • 323

3 Answers3

31

You can just do this with the listings package, and you won't even need an external pre-processor. listings doesn't come with a diff style but you can define one like this:

\lstdefinelanguage{diff}{
  morecomment=[f][\color{blue}]{@@},     % group identifier
  morecomment=[f][\color{red}]-,         % deleted lines 
  morecomment=[f][\color{green}]+,       % added lines
  morecomment=[f][\color{magenta}]{---}, % Diff header lines (must appear after +,-)
  morecomment=[f][\color{magenta}]{+++},
}

Use it in the usual ways. E.g., \lstinputlisting[language=diff]{myfile.diff}.

Update: Diff viewers often highlight the background of lines, instead of coloring the text. This can be added with the help of Martin Scharrer's lstlinebgrd package, available on CTAN in his lstaddons bundle (or get the latest version from the package homepage)

alexis
  • 7,961
  • Indeed, diff syntax is pretty simple! Thanks for having replied even with an accepted answer… – GaretJax Apr 01 '12 at 12:12
  • Welcome. If you figure out how to set the background color for any of these, please demonstrate. I'm not sure listings can set the background of anything smaller than a whole listing. – alexis Apr 02 '12 at 12:00
  • (Update: I found out about lstlinebgrd, which can set the background color). – alexis Dec 19 '12 at 15:55
13

minted?

\begin{minted}{diff}
<diff data goes here>
\end{minted}

would work, or

\inputminted{diff}{path/to/file.diff}

if you want to just read the diff from a file. Minted also provides a listing command you can use to wrap it in a floating box like a figure or table.

hlongmore
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mbork
  • 13,385
  • 2
    Indeed, pygmentize -L lexers shows that diff is supported. – egreg Mar 31 '12 at 10:17
  • @egreg: I know, I checked it on the project's web page first;). – mbork Mar 31 '12 at 10:18
  • Great! I don't have the time to change all my other listings to minted though (I use lstlistings). Is there a way to use lstlistings settings for minted? – GaretJax Mar 31 '12 at 10:19
  • (And I couldn't resist having a go at the lowest-answer-length-to-upvotes-ratio contest:P.) – mbork Mar 31 '12 at 10:19
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    @mbork The comment was intended as a spur to improve the answer. ;-) – egreg Mar 31 '12 at 10:19
  • @mbork remove the ? then! – GaretJax Mar 31 '12 at 10:21
  • @GaretJax: lol. But joking aside: I have no experience with any of these packages. But I guess that it might be not too difficult to do the transition, either by changing the source file through regexps or by making a macro wrapper for minted with listings syntax (probably more difficult). Could you put an MWE of what you want to achieve (e.g., your settings) into your question? Then someone might help you (not me, probably;)). – mbork Mar 31 '12 at 10:28
  • @egreg: as I wrote above, I have no experience in syntax highlighting in LaTeX... – mbork Mar 31 '12 at 10:29
  • Don't worry… I'll use keep my (single) diff file unhighlighted for this time and will be using minted from now on. I didn't even knew it existed ;) – GaretJax Mar 31 '12 at 11:20
6

I extended the answer from alexis to cover more formats: normal format (diff), unified format (diff -u), context format (diff -c) and diffs from Git (git diff):

\lstdefinelanguage{diff}{
  sensitive=true,
  % diff command line
  morecomment=[f][\color{gray}][0]{diff},
  % commit identifiers for git diff
  morecomment=[f][\color{gray}][0]{index},
  % hunk location/line numbers for unified format
  morecomment=[f][\color{blue}][0]{@@},
  % hunk location/line numbers for context format
  morecomment=[f][\color{magenta}][0]{***},
  % changed line for context format
  morecomment=[f][\color{violet}][0]{!},
  % deleted lines for unified format
  morecomment=[f][\color{red!60!black}][0]-,
  % added lines for unified format
  morecomment=[f][\color{green!60!black}][0]+,
  % file name and time stamp old file
  morecomment=[f][\color{magenta}][0]{---},
  % file name and time stamp new file
  morecomment=[f][\color{magenta}][0]{+++},
  % Binary files ... differ
  morecomment=[f][\color{gray}][0]{Binary},
  % Only in ...: file.txt
  morecomment=[f][\color{gray}][0]{Only},
  % old mode ...
  morecomment=[f][\color{gray}][0]{old},
  % new mode ...
  morecomment=[f][\color{gray}][0]{new},
  % rename from/to ...
  morecomment=[f][\color{gray}][0]{rename},
  % similarity index ...%
  morecomment=[f][\color{gray}][0]{similarity},
  % deleted file mode ...%
  morecomment=[f][\color{gray}][0]{deleted},
  % hunk separator for context format
  morecomment=[f][\color{magenta}][0]{***************},
  % deleted lines for normal format
  morecomment=[f][\color{red!60!black}][0]<,
  % added lines for normal format
  morecomment=[f][\color{green!60!black}][0]>,
  % line number specifier for normal format
  morecomment=[f][\color{blue}][0]{0},
  % line number specifier for normal format
  morecomment=[f][\color{blue}][0]{1},
  % line number specifier for normal format
  morecomment=[f][\color{blue}][0]{2},
  % line number specifier for normal format
  morecomment=[f][\color{blue}][0]{3},
  % line number specifier for normal format
  morecomment=[f][\color{blue}][0]{4},
  % line number specifier for normal format
  morecomment=[f][\color{blue}][0]{5},
  % line number specifier for normal format
  morecomment=[f][\color{blue}][0]{6},
  % line number specifier for normal format
  morecomment=[f][\color{blue}][0]{7},
  % line number specifier for normal format
  morecomment=[f][\color{blue}][0]{8},
  % line number specifier for normal format
  morecomment=[f][\color{blue}][0]{9},
}[comments]
Michael Fiedler
  • 71