1
00:00:04,080 --> 00:00:06,360
As I told you in the last
lesson, quite often, we use

2
00:00:06,360 --> 00:00:09,480
visual diff tools for comparing
files. There's so many visual

3
00:00:09,480 --> 00:00:12,840
diff tools out there. The most
popular ones are K, diff, and P

4
00:00:12,840 --> 00:00:16,200
for merge, which are cross
platform, and winmerge that runs

5
00:00:16,230 --> 00:00:19,200
only on Windows. In this lesson,
I'm going to show you how to use

6
00:00:19,200 --> 00:00:22,440
VS code for comparing files. If
you want to use a different tool

7
00:00:22,440 --> 00:00:24,600
or a different editor, you have
to look up the instructions

8
00:00:24,600 --> 00:00:27,720
yourself. So here in the
terminal, first, we have to tell

9
00:00:27,720 --> 00:00:31,380
Git that we want to use VS code
as our default default. So we

10
00:00:31,380 --> 00:00:34,740
have to set to configuration
settings. So once again, we type

11
00:00:34,950 --> 00:00:39,720
Git config, dash dash global, so
the global settings apply to all

12
00:00:39,720 --> 00:00:42,750
of our repositories. Okay. Now,
the setting we're going to set

13
00:00:42,750 --> 00:00:47,130
is diff tool. We're going to set
that to VS code. So with this

14
00:00:47,130 --> 00:00:50,250
command, we're just giving a
name, in this case VS code to

15
00:00:50,250 --> 00:00:54,540
our default default, next minute
to tell git, how to launch VS

16
00:00:54,540 --> 00:00:59,460
code. So once again, git config
dash dash global here we set

17
00:00:59,580 --> 00:01:06,270
default dot VS code dot cmd. We
set this to double quotes

18
00:01:06,300 --> 00:01:09,120
because we're gonna have a
space. Now on my machine, I've

19
00:01:09,120 --> 00:01:12,570
added code to my path, so I can
run it from any directories. If

20
00:01:12,570 --> 00:01:14,460
this doesn't work on your
machine, you have to look up the

21
00:01:14,460 --> 00:01:17,910
instructions yourself, depending
on your operating system. So

22
00:01:17,910 --> 00:01:20,640
we're going to launch code with
a few arguments. The first one

23
00:01:20,640 --> 00:01:24,600
is dash dash, wait, this tells
the terminal window to wait

24
00:01:24,660 --> 00:01:27,270
until we're done with VS code.
So until we have compared the

25
00:01:27,270 --> 00:01:31,380
changes and close the VS code
instance, the second argument is

26
00:01:31,500 --> 00:01:35,310
dash dash diff. This tells VS
code that we want to use it for

27
00:01:35,310 --> 00:01:39,150
diffing or comparing files. Then
we have two more arguments,

28
00:01:39,450 --> 00:01:44,130
dollar sign, local in capital,
and dollar sign, remote and

29
00:01:44,130 --> 00:01:48,060
capital. These are placeholders
for the old and new copies of a

30
00:01:48,060 --> 00:01:51,930
file. Okay, so let's set that.
Now. Let's make sure that you

31
00:01:51,930 --> 00:01:55,740
have got this step right. So
we're going to run git config

32
00:01:55,950 --> 00:01:59,730
dash dash global dash e as I
told you at the beginning of the

33
00:01:59,730 --> 00:02:02,550
course. With this command, we
can edit our global

34
00:02:02,550 --> 00:02:05,760
configuration settings in our
default editor, which is VS

35
00:02:05,760 --> 00:02:10,770
code. So take a look. So all
these things are stored in this

36
00:02:10,770 --> 00:02:15,300
file dot Git config, which is
stored in this directory. So we

37
00:02:15,300 --> 00:02:17,430
have the user section, which we
said earlier in the course.

38
00:02:18,570 --> 00:02:21,510
Here's the diff section that we
just set. In the section, you

39
00:02:21,510 --> 00:02:24,750
have set the tool to VS code.
This is just a name. Then we

40
00:02:24,750 --> 00:02:28,470
have diff tool VS code. And
here's the command that should

41
00:02:28,470 --> 00:02:32,310
be run for comparing files with
VS code. So we have code with

42
00:02:32,310 --> 00:02:36,210
dash dash Wait, then dash dash
diff. And now those two

43
00:02:36,210 --> 00:02:39,720
placeholders that I added, for
some reason they're lost. So

44
00:02:39,810 --> 00:02:43,290
let's add them real quick.
dollar sign, local, and dollar

45
00:02:43,290 --> 00:02:47,430
sign remote. Make sure to get
this right. Otherwise things are

46
00:02:47,430 --> 00:02:50,640
not going to work on your
machine. Now we're done. So

47
00:02:51,570 --> 00:02:56,580
that's closest we know. Back
into terminal, instead of using

48
00:02:56,580 --> 00:03:00,000
the diff command, we're going to
use diff tool. This will allow

49
00:03:00,000 --> 00:03:02,880
are a visual diff tool for
comparing files. Now if you

50
00:03:02,880 --> 00:03:05,640
don't supply any arguments,
we're going to see our unstaged

51
00:03:05,640 --> 00:03:08,280
changes. So this will compare
what we have in the working

52
00:03:08,280 --> 00:03:11,400
directory with what we have in
the staging area. If you want to

53
00:03:11,400 --> 00:03:16,110
look at our state changes, we
supply dash dash sticks exactly

54
00:03:16,110 --> 00:03:19,950
the same way we use the diff
command. Okay, so let's look at

55
00:03:19,950 --> 00:03:23,430
the changes we have in our
working directory. We have

56
00:03:23,430 --> 00:03:27,060
modified only a single file,
that is why we have one out of

57
00:03:27,060 --> 00:03:30,780
one, and that is file one dot j
s. So Git is asking if you want

58
00:03:30,780 --> 00:03:33,660
to launch VS code, which is the
name that we assigned to our

59
00:03:33,660 --> 00:03:39,210
default dev tool. Let's go ahead
and take a look. So here's the

60
00:03:39,210 --> 00:03:42,060
old copy, which is what we have
in the staging area. And here's

61
00:03:42,060 --> 00:03:44,550
a new copy, which is what we
have in the working directory.

62
00:03:45,030 --> 00:03:48,660
As you can see, we can easily
tell that this line has been

63
00:03:48,660 --> 00:03:51,930
replaced with this line, it's
much easier to see the changes.

64
00:03:52,830 --> 00:03:55,590
Now the terminal window is
waiting for us to close the VS

65
00:03:55,590 --> 00:04:00,000
code instance. So let's close
this window. Back to the

66
00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:03,630
terminal. Now let's look at the
state changes. So, git diff

67
00:04:03,630 --> 00:04:07,590
tool, dash dash staged, two
files have been affected in the

68
00:04:07,590 --> 00:04:11,190
staging area. The first one is
file one dot j s, let's look at

69
00:04:11,190 --> 00:04:15,150
the changes. Alright, in this
case, the old copy is what we

70
00:04:15,150 --> 00:04:18,480
have in the last command. And
the new copy is what we have the

71
00:04:18,480 --> 00:04:21,750
staging area. So these are the
changes that are going to go

72
00:04:21,750 --> 00:04:24,780
into next commit, we can easily
tell that we have added two

73
00:04:24,780 --> 00:04:29,880
lines here. Now let's close this
tab. Back in the terminal, Git

74
00:04:29,880 --> 00:04:32,820
is asking if you want to look at
the changes in file to the J s.

75
00:04:33,060 --> 00:04:36,180
In this case, I'm going to
ignore that So no, I quite

76
00:04:36,210 --> 00:04:39,060
honestly, we don't use dev tools
so much these days. I just

77
00:04:39,060 --> 00:04:41,400
covered it because I want my
course to be comprehensive.

78
00:04:41,700 --> 00:04:45,990
These days. Most editors and IDs
allow us to view the stage and

79
00:04:46,020 --> 00:04:49,470
unstaged changes as part of our
development environment. I will

80
00:04:49,470 --> 00:04:51,210
show you how to do this later in
the section.