preen
Two entry points from git
install.sh adds two ways to reach preen from git itself:
git preen # same as: preen diff
git difftool -t preen # render one file's diff at a time
git difftool # the same; preen is the default diff.tool
git preen
An alias for preen diff — the file picker over everything
you have not committed.
It is a ! alias, which means git runs it as a shell command instead of
looking for a git-preen binary on your PATH. A side effect worth knowing:
git runs a ! alias from the repository root, so git preen shows the
whole repository no matter which subdirectory you happen to be standing in.
That is usually what you want, and preen diff does the same thing: it runs
from the repository root too, so both list the whole repository whichever
directory you start them in.
git difftool
git difftool walks the changed files one at a time and hands each pair to the
tool you name. With preen registered, each one is rendered by delta and paged.
The command it runs per file is:
diff -u "$LOCAL" "$REMOTE" | preen -
Plain diff -u builds a unified diff, and preen - reads it from stdin,
recognizes it as a diff, sends it to delta and pages it. It is the
pipe path with nothing extra bolted on.
difftool.prompt is set to false, so git does not stop and ask
Launch 'preen' [Y/n]? before every single file.
preen is also set as diff.tool, so bare git difftool uses it without the
-t.
git preen or git difftool?
git preen— jump around. A file list you can search, with the diff beside it. This is the one to reach for.git difftool— go through in order, one file per pager,qfor the next. Better when you want to be sure you looked at every file exactly once.
What the installer writes
Everything goes into your global git config, ~/.gitconfig. Nothing is
written per repository.
Before the first write, install.sh copies ~/.gitconfig to
~/.gitconfig.preen.bak — once. A later re-run will not overwrite that
backup with an already-modified file.
The two entry points
[core]
pager = delta
[interactive]
diffFilter = delta --color-only
[alias]
preen = !preen diff
[diff]
tool = preen
[difftool]
prompt = false
[difftool "preen"]
cmd = diff -u "$LOCAL" "$REMOTE" | preen -
Those first two are worth reading twice: they change git diff and
git add -p for every repository on the machine, not just when you run
preen. They are also the two --uninstall deliberately keeps — see below.
The delta theme
The rest is the color scheme and the layout features, described in Theming:
[delta]
features = sbs
navigate = true
dark = true
true-color = always
syntax-theme = Dracula
line-numbers = true
file-style = "#bd93f9 bold"
file-decoration-style = "#7c6ff0 ul"
hunk-header-style = "#8a84b0"
hunk-header-decoration-style = "#7c6ff0 box"
line-numbers-left-style = "#7c6ff0"
line-numbers-right-style = "#7c6ff0"
line-numbers-zero-style = "#8a84b0"
plus-style = "syntax #1e3326"
minus-style = "syntax #3a1e28"
plus-emph-style = "syntax #2d5a3d"
minus-emph-style = "syntax #5c2d3a"
zero-style = syntax
[delta "sbs"]
side-by-side = true
[delta "inline"]
side-by-side = false
One key it moves
If you already have delta.side-by-side set in the main [delta] section, the
installer unsets it and puts the setting into the sbs feature instead.
That is not tidying. Options in the main [delta] section beat options set by a
feature, so a stray side-by-side there wins over both features and ctrl-s
stops doing anything at all. See Theming.
Preview it, or undo it
./install.sh --dry-run # print every step, change nothing
./install.sh --no-deps # config only, install no packages
./install.sh --uninstall # take the git config back out
--uninstall removes the delta.* theme keys, plus alias.preen,
diff.tool, difftool.preen.cmd and difftool.prompt. It also deletes
~/.config/glow/roost.json and the preen link in your prefix.
It keeps four keys, and delta.navigate and delta.dark are delta.*
keys among them, so "every delta.* key" would be wrong:
| kept | why |
|---|---|
core.pager | a plain delta setup that works without preen |
interactive.diffFilter | the same |
delta.navigate | the same |
delta.dark | the same |
It never removes packages, and it leaves ~/.gitconfig.preen.bak in place —
that is your pre-preen config, so delete it yourself once you are sure.