🔀 Install Latest difftastic on Ubuntu

What is difftastic?

difftastic (the command is difft) is a structural diff tool. Instead of comparing lines, it parses both files with tree-sitter, builds a syntax tree for each side and reports which pieces of syntax actually changed. Reindenting a block, rewrapping an argument list or moving a closing brace stops being a diff, while a renamed variable buried in reformatted code stands out.

⚡ Key Features of difftastic

📦 Installation from deb.griffo.io

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 2>/dev/null) 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 2>/dev/null) main" | tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/deb.griffo.io.list > /dev/null
apt update

# Install latest difftastic
sudo apt install difftastic

# Verify installation
difft --version

# Install latest difftastic
apt install difftastic

# Verify installation
difft --version

# Compare two files directly
difft old.py new.py

# Or let git call difftastic for every diff
git config --global diff.external difft

# The plain git diff is still one flag away
git --no-ext-diff diff

# The manual page ships with the package
man difft

🎯 Basic Usage Examples

Comparing files and directories:

# Two files, side by side
difft before.rs after.rs

# A single column, closer to traditional diff output
difft --display inline before.ts after.ts

# Two directories, skipping files that did not change
difft old/ new/ --skip-unchanged --sort-paths

# Which languages does this build understand?
difft --list-languages

Using it as git's diff:

# One-off: difftastic for this diff only
GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF=difft git diff

# Structural diffs through the whole history
GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF=difft git log -p --ext-diff

# Register it as a difftool
git config --global difftool.difftastic.cmd 'difft "$LOCAL" "$REMOTE"'
git difftool --tool difftastic

# A git alias for a structural log
git config --global alias.dlog '!GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF=difft git log -p --ext-diff'

Tuning the output:

# Ignore comment-only changes
difft --ignore-comments a.go b.go

# More context, and tabs worth two spaces
difft --context 5 --tab-width 2 a.py b.py

# For scripts: is there a syntactic change at all?
difft --check-only --exit-code a.json b.json

# Defaults for every invocation, from the environment
export DFT_DISPLAY=inline DFT_BACKGROUND=light

🚀 Why Choose deb.griffo.io?

• ✅ Current Grammars: the newest release, with tree-sitter grammars that understand the language versions you are writing today
• ✅ The Only apt Source: difftastic is in neither the Debian nor the Ubuntu archives; this repository packages the official upstream build
• ✅ Automatic Updates: packages updated within hours of upstream releases
• ✅ Complete Package: the upstream binary as /usr/bin/difft plus the difft.1 man page
• ✅ Two Architectures: amd64 (a static musl build, no library dependencies) and arm64
• ✅ Multi-Distribution: works on Ubuntu 22.04, 24.04, 25.10 and 26.04
• ✅ Easy Maintenance: standard apt commands for updates

📦 Package Build Repository

The Ubuntu packages are automatically built and maintained in this GitHub repository:

• 🔀 difftastic-debian - Latest release builds

🔗 Related Packages

Also available from deb.griffo.io:

• lazygit - Terminal git UI for staging hunks and lines
• Jujutsu - Git-compatible VCS with first-class rebases
• ripgrep - Fast recursive search across the same tree
• Neovim - Editor to open whatever the diff pointed at