Always use the pager for git diff

Question

I'm using less as my Git pager.

If the git diff output is readable on one page, my Git prints the output to the screen.

Sometimes I'm too fast with typing Ctrl + D (half page down), which kills my terminal. Is there an option to enable the pager for git diff, even if the output is very small?

This doesn't work:

git -p diff
git --paginate diff
git settings: pager.diff = true

related: stackoverflow.com/questions/2183900/…

Trevor Boyd Smith
– Trevor Boyd Smith

2019-03-28 13:06:48 +00:00
Commented Mar 28, 2019 at 13:06 — Trevor Boyd Smith
– Trevor Boyd Smith, Commented Mar 28, 2019 at 13:06

knittl · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-22 14:23:28Z

67

This is controlled by the -F (--quit-if-one-screen) option to less.

Git uses the options FRSX for/of less by default, if none are specified by the $LESS or $GIT_PAGER environment variables. To change it, specify the core.pager option and set it to RSX:

git config --global core.pager 'less -+F'

Older versions of Git used to recommend the following in their documentation:

git config --global core.pager 'less -+$LESS -RSX'

edited Nov 22, 2012 at 14:23

answered Sep 10, 2012 at 12:57

knittl

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9 Comments

William Pursell Over a year ago

git does not use FRSX by default. I suspect you are getting those defaults from the environment variable LESS, or from GIT_PAGER, which suggests another (imo simpler) solution. Namely, ensure that F does not appear in LESS or in GIT_PAGER. If git does use defaults when PAGER and GIT_PAGER are unset, that would surprise me, but perhaps I'm wrong about that. Documentation?

knittl Over a year ago

@WilliamPursell: The Git Documentation has been recently updated to disable options in a more backwards compatible way. My code was directly copied from the (old) man page – I have updated it now. The documentation also writes »Git sets the LESS variable to FSRX if it is unset«

dset0x Over a year ago

May want to add '-r' to enable interpreting ANSI colors.

Chris Martin Over a year ago

You may also want -c, which causes the output to always start at the top and fill the screen.

Glenn Willen Over a year ago

Do not ever use -r unless you really know what you're doing, always prefer -R. I just spent like half an hour debugging this. "-R" means "pass through escape codes that less understands, and update less's model of the terminal." Whereas "-r" means "pass through all escape codes and ignore them; good luck." (This generally mangles the output in subtle ways.)

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