How to set patience as default git diff algorithm

Question

In .git/config I tried:

[diff]
    patience = true

But no luck

Do I have to do:

git diff --patience
git show --patience HEAD

etc., every time?

Answer 1

Since Git 1.8.2, Git will use diff.algorithm:

git config --global diff.algorithm patience

It took a few iterations:

[PATCH v3 0/3] Rework git-diff algorithm selection

[PATCH v2 0/3] Rework git-diff algorithm selection

[PATCH 0/3] Rework git-diff algorithm selection

[PATCH] diff: Introduce diff.algorithm variable.

[PATCH] config: Introduce --patience config variable

Answer 2

In lieu of a config-based answer, you could set an alias in your .gitconfig like so:

[alias]
dp = diff --patience

Which will allow you to do git dp [optional refspec]