---
name: "lei-rediff"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "lei"
version: "2.1.0-2"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/lei-rediff"
---

# lei-rediff(1)

regenerate a diff with different options

## NAME

lei-rediff - regenerate a diff with different options

## SYNOPSIS

lei rediff \[OPTIONS\] LOCATION \[LOCATION...\]

lei rediff \[OPTIONS\] (--stdin\|-)

## DESCRIPTION

Read a message from `"LOCATION"` or stdin and regenerate its diff with the specified [**git-diff**(1)](/git-diff/1.md) options.  This is useful if you want to change the display of the original patch (e.g., increasing context, coloring moved lines differently, or using an external diff viewer).

It relies on the contents of the .git directory of your current project working tree.  In other words, it works anywhere [**git-am**(1)](/git-am/1.md) works.  Otherwise, `"--git-dir="` may be specified any number of times to add repositories to build blob data from.

## OPTIONS

In addition to many [**git-diff**(1)](/git-diff/1.md) options (e.g. `"-W"`, `"-w"`, `"-U $LINES"`) the following options are supported:

- \--stdin

  Read message from stdin.  This is implicit if no arguments are given and stdin is a pipe or regular file.

  For users of text editors and pagers capable of piping its buffer to arbitrary commands, it is useful to pipe a patch email to `"lei rediff"` before piping it to [**git-am**(1)](/git-am/1.md).  The output of `"lei rediff"` is compatible with `"git am"` if its input was a patch email.

- \--drq\[=COUNT\]

  De-Re-Quote.  De-quotes the input and re-quotes (the output). Removes COUNT levels of `"> "` email reply prefixes and re-adds them upon regenerating the diff.

  This switch is intended as a convenience for running inside a pipe-capable text editor when writing replies to a patch email. Note: this may over-add `"> "` prefixes if some input lines are missing `"> "` prefixes.

  COUNT is 1 if unspecified; in other words, `"--drq=1"` and `"--drq"` are equivalent.

  It implies "--quiet" unless "--verbose" is specified since text editors tend to combine stderr with stdout.

- \--dequote-only\[=COUNT\]

  Like "--drq", but does not re-add quote prefixes to the output.

  This can be useful for feeding a hunk to [**git-apply**(1)](/git-apply/1.md) or [**patch**(1)](/patch/1.md) while writing a reply or further processing by another diff viewer.

  Unlike "--drq", it does NOT imply "--quiet".

- \--git-dir=DIR

  Specify an additional .git/ directory to scan.  This option may be given multiple times.

  Default: the output of `"git rev-parse --git-dir"`

- \--no-cwd

  Do not look in the git repository of the current working directory.

- \-q

  - \--quiet

  Suppress progress output.

- \-v

  - \--verbose

  Provide more feedback on stderr.

The options below, described in [**lei-q**(1)](/lei-q/1.md), are also supported.

- \--\[no-\]remote

  - \--no-local

  - \--no-external

  - \--no-import-remote

  - \--torsocks=auto\|no\|yes, --no-torsocks

  - \--proxy=PROTOCOL://HOST\[:PORT\]

  ## CONTACT

Feedback welcome via plain-text mail to \<mailto:meta@public-inbox.org\>

The mail archives are hosted at \<https://public-inbox.org/meta/\> and \<http://4uok3hntl7oi7b4uf4rtfwefqeexfzil2w6kgk2jn5z2f764irre7byd.onion/meta/\>

## COPYRIGHT

Copyright 2021 all contributors \<mailto:meta@public-inbox.org\>

License: AGPL-3.0+ \<https://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.txt\>

## SEE ALSO

[**lei-q**(1)](/lei-q/1.md), [**lei-blob**(1)](/lei-blob/1.md), [**lei-p2q**(1)](/lei-p2q/1.md)