All of lore.kernel.org
 help / color / mirror / Atom feed
From: "Michael Montalbo via GitGitGadget" <gitgitgadget@gmail.com>
To: git@vger.kernel.org
Cc: Michael Montalbo <mmontalbo@gmail.com>,
	Michael Montalbo <mmontalbo@gmail.com>
Subject: [PATCH] doc: clarify that --word-diff operates on line-level hunks
Date: Wed, 13 May 2026 15:42:36 +0000	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <pull.2113.git.1778686956622.gitgitgadget@gmail.com> (raw)

From: Michael Montalbo <mmontalbo@gmail.com>

The --word-diff documentation describes the output modes and
word-regex mechanics but does not explain that word-diff operates
within the hunks produced by the line-level diff rather than
performing an independent word-stream comparison.  This can
surprise users when the line-level alignment causes word-level
changes to appear even though the words in both files are
identical.

Add a short note explaining the two-stage relationship.

Signed-off-by: Michael Montalbo <mmontalbo@gmail.com>
---
    doc: clarify that --word-diff operates on line-level hunks
    
    CC: Vincent Lefevre vincent@vinc17.net, Johannes Sixt j6t@kdbg.org

Published-As: https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git/releases/tag/pr-2113%2Fmmontalbo%2Fmm%2Fdoc-word-diff-v1
Fetch-It-Via: git fetch https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git pr-2113/mmontalbo/mm/doc-word-diff-v1
Pull-Request: https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git/pull/2113

 Documentation/diff-options.adoc | 5 +++++
 1 file changed, 5 insertions(+)

diff --git a/Documentation/diff-options.adoc b/Documentation/diff-options.adoc
index 8a63b5e164..665473e61a 100644
--- a/Documentation/diff-options.adoc
+++ b/Documentation/diff-options.adoc
@@ -457,6 +457,11 @@ endif::git-diff[]
 +
 Note that despite the name of the first mode, color is used to
 highlight the changed parts in all modes if enabled.
++
+Word diff works by finding word-level changes within each hunk of
+the line-level diff.  The line-level alignment determines which
+changed lines are compared to each other, which can affect the
+word-level output.
 
 `--word-diff-regex=<regex>`::
 	Use _<regex>_ to decide what a word is, instead of considering

base-commit: 94f057755b7941b321fd11fec1b2e3ca5313a4e0
-- 
gitgitgadget

                 reply	other threads:[~2026-05-13 15:42 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: [no followups] expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed

Reply instructions:

You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:

* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
  and reply-to-all from there: mbox

  Avoid top-posting and favor interleaved quoting:
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style

* Reply using the --to, --cc, and --in-reply-to
  switches of git-send-email(1):

  git send-email \
    --in-reply-to=pull.2113.git.1778686956622.gitgitgadget@gmail.com \
    --to=gitgitgadget@gmail.com \
    --cc=git@vger.kernel.org \
    --cc=mmontalbo@gmail.com \
    /path/to/YOUR_REPLY

  https://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-send-email.html

* If your mail client supports setting the In-Reply-To header
  via mailto: links, try the mailto: link
Be sure your reply has a Subject: header at the top and a blank line before the message body.
This is an external index of several public inboxes,
see mirroring instructions on how to clone and mirror
all data and code used by this external index.