Git: show more context when using git add -i or git add -e?

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I'm selectively committing parts of a large file and I'd like to see more context around each hunk. Is this possible?

3 Answers

To confirm, this is still not possible in 2019.

An external tool like jjlee/git-meld-index can help:

git-meld-index runs meld -- or any other git difftool (kdiff3, diffuse, etc.) -- to allow you to interactively stage changes to the git index (also known as the git staging area).

This is similar to the functionality of git add -p, and git add --interactive.

In some cases meld is easier / quicker to use than git add -p or the staging feature in tools like git gui.
That's because meld allows you, for example, to:

  • see more context,
  • see intra-line diffs
  • edit by hand and see 'live' diff updates (updated after every keypress)
  • navigate to a change without saying 'n' to every change you want to skip
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