gitgit-configgit-status

How to colorize git-status output?


I want to colorize git-status output so that:

untracked files = magenta
new files = green
modified files = blue
deleted files = red

I am instead seeing staged files in green and unstaged files in blue: screenshot of git-status

My .gitconfig is setup with the following based on some searching:

[color]
status = auto

[color "status"]
added = green
changed = blue
untracked = magenta
deleted = red

Solution

  • From git config doc:

    color.status.<slot>
    

    Use customized color for status colorization. <slot> is one of:

    • header (the header text of the status message),
    • added or updated (files which are added but not committed),
    • changed (files which are changed but not added in the index),
    • untracked (files which are not tracked by git),
    • branch (the current branch),
    • nobranch (the color the no branch warning is shown in, defaulting to red),
    • localBranch or remoteBranch (the local and remote branch names, respectively, when branch and tracking information is displayed in the status short-format),
    • unmerged (files which have unmerged changes).

    The values of these variables may be specified as in color.branch.<slot>.

    So this will work:

    git config color.status.changed blue
    git config color.status.untracked magenta
    

    However:

    new files = green
    deleted files = red
    

    Isn't possible: you need to pick one color:

    Note:

    Colors may also be given as numbers between 0 and 255; these use ANSI 256-color mode (but not all terminals may support this).
    See "xterm 256 colors" for those numbers, as noted in the comments by Joshua Goldberg.


    Of course, as commented by elboletaire:

    Remember to enable coloring output if it has not been enabled previously:

    git config --global color.ui true
    

    As noted in git config color.ui

    Set it to:

    • always if you want all output not intended for machine consumption to use color,
    • true or auto (this is the default since Git 1.8.4) if you want such output to use color when written to the terminal.

    So if you write in a shell window which is somehow not recognized as a terminal, you might still want to try a git config color.ui always, to be sure.


    Shaun Luttin adds:

    The command can also take multiple parameters in quotes. This includes two colors (foreground background) from this list:

    normal, black, red, green, yellow, blue, magenta, cyan and white;

    and it also includes one attribute (style) from this list:

    bold, dim, ul, blink and reverse.

    So this will work:

    git config color.status.changed "blue normal bold"
    git config color.status.header "white normal dim"
    

    Note: with git 2.9.1 (July 2016), The output coloring scheme learned two new attributes, italic and strike, in addition to the existing bold, reverse, etc.

    See commit 9dc3515, commit 54590a0, commit 5621068, commit df8e472, commit ae989a6, commit adb3356, commit 0111681 (23 Jun 2016) by Jeff King (peff).
    (Merged by Junio C Hamano -- gitster -- in commit 3c5de5c, 11 Jul 2016)

    It also allows "no-" for negating attributes

    Using "no-bold" rather than "nobold" is easier to read and more natural to type (to me, anyway, even though I was the person who introduced "nobold" in the first place). It's easy to allow both.