---
name: "diffman-git"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "man-pages-utils"
version: "6.19-1"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/diffman-git"
---

# diffman-git(1)

compare changes to manual pages line by line

## NAME

diffman-git - compare changes to manual pages line by line

## SYNOPSIS

**diffman-git** \[*diff-options* ...\] \[\[*base-commit*\] *commit*\]

## DESCRIPTION

The **diffman-git** command formats a manual page at two [**git**(1)](/git/1.md) commits, and then runs [**diff**(1)](/diff/1.md) on the formatted outputs.

If the *commit* is not specified, it diffs the working directory against HEAD.

If the *base-commit* is not specified, the comparison is done against the previous commit.

## OPTIONS

- **-s**

  Report when two files are the same.

- **-U***n*

  output *n* (default 3) lines of unified context.

- **-w**

  Ignore all white space.

## ENVIRONMENT

See [**man**(1)](/man/1.md).

## EXAMPLES

```
$ MAN_KEEP_FORMATTING= diffman-git 437e4afec6ca | less -R;
--- 437e4afec6ca^:man/man3/sem_open.3
+++ 437e4afec6ca:man/man3/sem_open.3
@@ -14,3 +14,2 @@
-     sem_t *sem_open(const char *name, int oflag);
-     sem_t *sem_open(const char *name, int oflag,
-                     mode_t mode, unsigned int value);
+     sem_t *sem_open(const char *name, int oflag, ...
+                     /* mode_t mode, unsigned int value */ );
```

## SEE ALSO

[**diff**(1)](/diff/1.md), [**man**(1)](/man/1.md), [**git**(1)](/git/1.md), [**less**(1)](/less/1.md)