Readable Diffs With icdiff
Compare files side by side with aligned, colored changes.
Run icdiff file1.txt file2.txt for a colored side-by-side comparison.
01Command
Command
$ icdiff file1.txt file2.txt02What it does
icdiff improves on plain diff by placing the two files in columns with per-line highlighting, so insertions and deletions line up, and it clamps output to the terminal width. It can also act as a git difftool.
03Risk
!Warning: It is a display helper, not a merge tool; long lines may be truncated to fit the width.
04Undo
✓No undo needed — this command does not change persistent state.
05Sources
- Debian package: icdiffEvidence: Debian packages icdiff, an improved colored side-by-side diff viewer.
- icdiffEvidence: Debian packages icdiff, an improved colored side-by-side diff viewer.
Last verified: 2026-09-22 · Category: Developer
06Related solutions
Create and Apply Patches with diff -u and patch
Generate a unified diff between two files, apply it to another copy with patch, and reverse it with patch -R.
Update and upgrade packages on Debian/Ubuntu with apt
Refresh the package index from all configured repositories, then install newer versions of every upgradable package.
Search text recursively in a directory with grep
Find every occurrence of a pattern across all files in a tree, printed as file:line:number matches.