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🔀 apt install difftastic

A structural diff tool that compares files by syntax, not line by line

⚡ The short answer. On a stock system apt install difftastic fails outright, difftastic is not in the official Debian or Ubuntu archives at all. Add the deb.griffo.io repository below and sudo apt install difftastic gives you the current release on Debian and Ubuntu alike, currently difftastic 0.70.0 (updated 2026-08-23).

📦 Add the repository, then apt install difftastic

Step 1: Add repository & key

Run the commands
sudo install -d -m 0755 /etc/apt/keyrings
curl -fsSL https://deb.griffo.io/EA0F721D231FDD3A0A17B9AC7808B4DD62C41256.asc | sudo gpg --dearmor --yes -o /etc/apt/keyrings/deb.griffo.io.gpg
echo "deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/deb.griffo.io.gpg] https://deb.griffo.io/apt $(lsb_release -sc) main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/deb.griffo.io.list > /dev/null
sudo apt update
install -d -m 0755 /etc/apt/keyrings
curl -fsSL https://deb.griffo.io/EA0F721D231FDD3A0A17B9AC7808B4DD62C41256.asc | gpg --dearmor --yes -o /etc/apt/keyrings/deb.griffo.io.gpg
echo "deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/deb.griffo.io.gpg] https://deb.griffo.io/apt $(lsb_release -sc) main" | tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/deb.griffo.io.list > /dev/null
apt update
sudo apt install extrepo
sudo extrepo enable griffo
sudo apt update

🆓 There is an always-free mirror. deb-free.griffo.io serves packages free forever, no account, no subscription, at most 2 months behind upstream, security fixes immediately. It currently carries cliamp, Ghostty, lazydocker, Oh My Posh and Zed; difftastic is not one of them, so the repository above is the only way to get it today, ask and it can be enrolled.

How the free mirror works →

🧩 About the extrepo option. extrepo is Debian's own tool for external repositories: it writes the sources file and installs the signing key for you, checking the key against signed metadata first. This repository is registered with it as griffo, and the always-free mirror as griffo-free, so on Debian (bookworm, trixie, forky and sid) the commands above are the whole setup.

extrepo sets up the sources file and the key only, so a subscription's credentials still go in /etc/apt/auth.conf.d/deb.griffo.io.conf. Ubuntu is not covered, because extrepo publishes metadata for Debian suites only: there, use the sudo or root commands.

Step 2: apt install difftastic

sudo apt install -y difftastic
apt install -y difftastic

🔄 How to apt install the latest difftastic

Once the repository is added there is no separate "install latest" command, apt already resolves to the newest version this repository serves, and that is rebuilt within hours of every upstream difftastic release. To move an existing install up to the latest version:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install --only-upgrade difftastic
apt update && apt install --only-upgrade difftastic

Or upgrade everything on the machine at once with sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade. To see which version you would get before installing, run apt policy difftastic.

📋 difftastic versions available right now

Debian

Debian releaseSuitedifftastic version
Debian 12 “Bookworm”bookworm0.70.0-1~bookworm
Debian 13 “Trixie”trixie0.70.0-1~trixie
Debian 14 “Forky”forky0.70.0-1~forky
Debian Sidsid0.70.0-1~sid

Ubuntu

Ubuntu releaseSuitedifftastic version
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS “Jammy Jellyfish”jammy0.70.0-1~jammy
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS “Noble Numbat”noble0.70.0-1~noble
Ubuntu 25.10 “Questing Quokka”questing0.70.0-1~questing
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS “Resolute”resolute0.70.0-1~resolute

❓ Common questions

Does apt-get install difftastic work too?

Yes. apt and apt-get read the same sources, so sudo apt-get install difftastic is equivalent. apt is the friendlier front-end; apt-get is the stable one to prefer inside scripts.

Why doesn't apt install difftastic work out of the box?

difftastic is not packaged in the official Debian or Ubuntu archives, so a stock system has nothing to install and apt install difftastic fails with "Unable to locate package". Adding this repository gives apt a source that carries difftastic and keeps it current.

Which Debian and Ubuntu releases are supported?

Every currently supported release listed in the table above. The $(lsb_release -sc) in the setup command picks the right suite for the machine you run it on, so the same three lines work everywhere.

Is this repository trustworthy?

It's an unofficial repository maintained by Dario Griffo. Packages are built automatically from official upstream difftastic releases, the packaging is open source at dariogriffo/difftastic-debian, and the whole archive is GPG-signed. Several upstream projects link to it from their official installation docs.

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