Load different colorscheme when using vimdiff

user_207140 0
Viewed 87335

How to load a different colorscheme when doing vimdiff.

I want this because the my current colorscheme does not show some diffs properly in vimdiff, For. eg some diff is shown with same fg/bg color. This makes it very hard to understand the diff. So every time i do a vimdiff i have to do :colorscheme some_other_scheme

Can this be done in .vimrc file?

vimdiff vim
14 Answers

If you're calling vimdiff from the command-line, put the following in your .vimrc:

if &diff
    colorscheme some_other_scheme
endif

If you're using vimdiff from within vim, you'd either have to override the commands you use to start/stop it (e.g. diffthis, diffoff) using :cnoreabbr (there's also a plugin) or use an autocommand:

au FilterWritePre * if &diff | colorscheme xyz | endif

FilterWritePre is called before filtering through an external program (the diff utility) and the &diff-option is set by vim when it's going into diff-mode (among others, see :help diff)

I'm not sure which autocommand to use to return to the original colorscheme though.

user_2306200

To answer my own question:

if &diff
    colorscheme evening
endif
user_2071400

molokai: molokai color scheme github: github color scheme The two themes github and molokai are equally beautiful.

curl -fLo ~/.vim/colors/molokai.vim --create-dirs https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tomasr/molokai/master/colors/molokai.vim
curl -fLo ~/.vim/colors/github.vim --create-dirs https://raw.githubusercontent.com/endel/vim-github-colorscheme/master/colors/github.vim

Put the following code in your ~/.vimrc, you can choose github or molokai (a line starting with a " is a comment):

if &diff
"   colorscheme github
    colorscheme molokai
endif
user_56578840

To expand on @dean and some other answers here, add this to your .vimrc:

if &diff
  " colorscheme evening
  highlight DiffAdd    cterm=bold ctermfg=10 ctermbg=17 gui=none guifg=bg guibg=Red
  highlight DiffDelete cterm=bold ctermfg=10 ctermbg=17 gui=none guifg=bg guibg=Red
  highlight DiffChange cterm=bold ctermfg=10 ctermbg=17 gui=none guifg=bg guibg=Red
  highlight DiffText   cterm=bold ctermfg=10 ctermbg=88 gui=none guifg=bg guibg=Red
endif
user_16554780

None of the solutions were working for me. When I used the if &diff check, it was only working if I resourced my config after opening the diff (:Gdiff from fugitive.vim plugin). It wasn't opening automatically. Moreover, after quitting the diff pane, I had to resource to get back my original color scheme. Hence, I ended up creating custom maps that would activate the required color scheme.

map ,m :colorscheme molokai<CR>
map ,c :colorscheme PaperColor<CR>
map ,g :colorscheme gruvbox<CR>

So far, this is the most promising solution I found, even though it's a bit of a hack and I would've liked it if the color scheme changed automatically. However, this way, I can apply any color scheme quickly at my leisure irrespective of whether I am in a diff window or not.

user_70489150

The slate colorscheme which comes standard with most vim installations works fine for me. FWIW, I work with a dark background. Thus I simply add the following to my .vimrc:

if &diff
  colorscheme slate
endif
user_6295300
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