How to get diff working like git-diff?

Question

I like the output formatting of git diff. The color and the +/- representation of changes between lines is easier to read than GNU di

Answer 1

GNU diff has a --color option since version 3.4 in late 2016 according to this answer on the Unix SE. That alongside -u should be enough to mimic the output of git diff:

diff -u --color=always file1 file2 | less -r

--color must be always when used in a pipe, auto will turn off color in pipes.

I've only tried this with Git Bash on Windows, where less -R would only color the first line of a hunk. less -r fixed it for me in that case.