Can I temporarily suppress delta?

[borekb]

If I have delta in my .gitconfig, is there a way to quickly disable it for one specific git ... invocation? Something like DISABLE_DELTA=1 git diff ... or similar.

[dandavison]

Hi @borekb, yes, for example:

git -c pager.diff='less -R' diff

or pager.show etc. There's also core.pager, but pager.diff / pager.show etc is what delta's README recommends. And there's also git -P ("no pager").

[borekb]

Thanks. So if I understand correctly, I need to do the right thing depending on the git command but there's no way to use my "usual defaults" (as if I commented out a delta section in my .gitconfig), right? Just want to make sure, maybe it's not technically possible to disable / suppress delta the way I imagine...

[dandavison]

I agree that superficially it's a bit inconvenient. However, the following methods do not depend on the current command

1. You can use git -P ... if it is acceptable not to use a pager at all
2. You could create a git alias, or a shell alias, along the following lines ("nuclear option"): git -c core.pager=$PAGER -c pager.diff=$PAGER -c pager.show=$PAGER -c pager.log=$PAGER ... That's assuming $PAGER holds something like less -R, but you can hardcode that explicitly of course.

Delta can't really make this more convenient -- it's about how we tell git not to use its configured pager.

[borekb]

Great, I'll probably use -P, it's fine for the rare few occasions where I don't want to use delta 😄. Thanks again!

[dandavison]

No problem!

[fakhrulhilal]

I used to use git --no-pager diff > file.patch to create a patch. The same way as option 1, just using long parameter style. Remember to use --no-pager or -P before other git command.

[mcornella]

GIT_PAGER= also works, for example if you are using an alias it might be faster:

GIT_PAGER= gd # alias to git diff