How do I enter into vimdiff mode given two splits are already open?

Question

I know you would normally enter into vimdiff mode from the terminal with vimdiff file1 file2. However, I frequently find myself already in vim with multiple different splits, and I'd like to run vimdiff on two specific splits, and then turn vimdiff off.

How would I go about this?

N.B. there might be other splits in my vim session that I don't want to be comparing. So I might have 4 vertical splits and I want to run vimdiff on split 1 with split 3, look at some differences, and then turn the diff off.

score 24 · Accepted Answer · edited Mar 13 '20 at 07:55

24

The command is called :diffthis. It must be executed in every window you want to add to the comparison.

The inverse is :diffoff which exits diff mode in the current window. To exit diff mode in all applicable windows add a bang: :diffoff!.

edited Mar 13 '20 at 07:55

B Layer

19,834
2
30
57

answered Mar 12 '20 at 12:08

Matt

20,685
1
11
24

2

The cod mapping from tpope's unimpaired can be handy. – mMontu Mar 12 '20 at 13:07
@mMontu It maps exactly to diffthis / diffoff. So it's useful if you're already using vim-unimpaired. Otherwise, it's not a problem to create such mapping yourself. – Matt Mar 12 '20 at 14:39
@Matt glorious - thank you, this works a treat. – Aeroblop Mar 12 '20 at 15:22
4

To quickly accomplish this in your splits, you can use :windo as in ":windo diffthis". – jpheldson Mar 12 '20 at 20:28

llinfeng · Answer 2 · 2022-08-10T05:00:57.440

2

Noting that two :diffthis commands ought to be issued with the existing two-split view, here's a quick Autohotkey snippet that does the trick - it simply emulates key-input to the Vim window by issuing :diffthis twice.

            send :diffthis
            send {enter}
            send ^w
            send w
            send :diffthis
            send {enter}

Looking forward to a native Vimscript/Lua-based solution.

Correction: `:windo diffthis` does the trick!

Kudos to Christian Brabandt.

Note, :windo diffoff achieves the same function as :diffoff!.

edited Aug 10 '22 at 05:00

answered Aug 04 '22 at 02:29

llinfeng

352
2
14

4

easier: :windo :diffthis if only two splits are opened – Christian Brabandt Aug 04 '22 at 06:50

How do I enter into vimdiff mode given two splits are already open?

2 Answers2

Correction: `:windo diffthis` does the trick!

Linked

How do I enter into vimdiff mode given two splits are already open?

2 Answers2

Correction: :windo diffthis does the trick!

Linked

Correction: `:windo diffthis` does the trick!