Pretty git diff for minified JSON

README.md

How to see pretty git diff for minified JSON files

Problem: You are about to commit a change in minified, one-liner JSON file and want to see the diff.

Requirements:

• Node.js - if you're not a JS guy, you'll need to write the pretty_json file (see below) in language of your choice
• (Optional) colordiff - or any other tool to colorize your diffs

Here's my unix/mac solution:

1. Copy the pretty_json file to some directory that is in your PATH.
2. If you're a vim enthusiast, copy the vimdiff_json to the same directory as the pretty_json file.
3. Otherwise, copy the diff_json to the same directory. Or why not copy both?
4. Run the following commands:

   cd <that_directory_you_copied_files_to>
   chmod +x pretty_json diff_json vimdiff_json
   git config --global difftool.diff_json.cmd "diff_json \$LOCAL \$REMOTE"
   git config --global difftool.vimdiff_json.cmd "vimdiff_json \$LOCAL \$REMOTE"
   git config --global difftool.prompt false

5. You're probably all set (unless I missed something)

Now you can git diff your json file this way:

git difftool ./relative_path/to.json --tool vimdiff_json

# or replace vimdiff_json with diff_json above if you're not into vim

Important note: To exit vim diff, press Esc, then type qa! and press Enter.

diff_json

#!/usr/bin/env bash
SCRIPT_DIR=$( cd -- "$( dirname -- "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}" )" &> /dev/null && pwd )

# NOTE: Pure 'diff' command is ugly
# You can replace diff with colordiff or other tool of your choice

diff -u <($SCRIPT_DIR/pretty_json -f "$1") <($SCRIPT_DIR/pretty_json -f "$2")

pretty_json

#!/usr/bin/env node

// this script prettifies the json received as input. If you don't have node,
// write this in language of your choice or replace with sth like jq

// usage:
// pretty_json '{"json": 1}' '{"second": "json"}'
// pretty_json -f file1.json path/to/file2.json

const fs = require("fs");
const json = process.argv[2] !== '-f' ? process.argv[2] : fs.readFileSync(process.argv[3]);

console.log(JSON.stringify(JSON.parse(json), null, 2));

vimdiff_json

#!/usr/bin/env bash
SCRIPT_DIR=$( cd -- "$( dirname -- "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}" )" &> /dev/null && pwd )

vimdiff <($SCRIPT_DIR/pretty_json -f "$1") <($SCRIPT_DIR/pretty_json -f "$2")