---
title: "Dunk is my new diff pager"
description: "Dunk is a beautiful git diff tool built on top of rich."
date: 2022-04-04
published: false
tags:
  - python
  - linux
  - python
template: til
---


[Dunk](https://github.com/darrenburns/dunk) is a beautiful git diff tool
built on top of [rich](https://github.com/Textualize/rich).

Browsing through twitter the other day I discovered it through this
tweet by [_darrenburns](https://twitter.com/_darrenburns).

[https://twitter.com/_darrenburns/status/1510350016623394817](https://twitter.com/_darrenburns/status/1510350016623394817){.hoverlink}

## Dunk is beta

Before I dive in deep, I do want to mention that Dunk is super new and beta at
this point.  I am making it my default pager, because I know what I am doing
and can quickly shift back if I need to, no sweat.  If you are a little less
comfortable with the command line, terminal, or reading any issues that might
come up, it might be best if you just pipe into Dunk when you want to use it.

The author really cautions the use of it as your default pager this early, I'm
just showing that it's possible, and I'm trying it.

> He notes that it might have some issues especially with partially staged files.

## try it

You can try it with pipx.

```bash
git diff | pipx run dunk
```

## install it

If you like it, you can install it with pip or pipx, I prefer pipx for
cli applications like this.

```bash
pipx install dunk
```

## set it as your default pager

You can configure dunk as your default pager with the command line, or
by editing your `.gitconfig` file.

```bash
git config --global pager.diff "dunk | less -R`
```

```toml
[pager]
    diff = dunk | less -R
```

> As [pointed out](https://twitter.com/_darrenburns/status/1511106440613797896) by
> [_darrenburns](https://twitter.com/_darrenburns) dunk is not a pager and you
> can gain back all of the benefits of using a pager by piping into less with the
> `-R` flag.

## reset it if you don't like it

You can `--unset` your pager configuration from the command line or edit
your `.gitconfig` file by hand to remove the lines shown above.

```bash
git config --global --unset pager.diff
```

## Comparison

I have some edits to a game my son and I are working on unstaged so I
ran `git diff` on that project with and without dunk to compare the
differences.

![default diff](https://images.waylonwalker.com/git-diff-creeper-adventure-default.png)

Dunk just looks so good.

![dunk diff](https://images.waylonwalker.com/git-diff-creeper-adventure-dunk.png)

## Always install

If you follow along here often you know that I am a big fan of
installing all my tools in an ansible playbook so that I don't suffer
configuring a new machine for months after getting it and wondering why
its not exactly like the last.

```yaml
# Dunk - prettier git diffs
# https://github.com/darrenburns/dunk
- name: check is dunk installed
  shell: command -v black
  register: dunk_exists
  ignore_errors: yes

- name: install dunk
  when: dunk_exists is failed
  shell: pipx install dunk
```

[[ ansible-install-if-not-callable ]]

> More on conditionally installing tools with ansible in this post.