--- name: "patchview" section: "1" platform: "linux" package: "patchutils" version: "0.4.5-1" release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01" platforms: ["linux"] url: "https://new.carta.tech/patchview" --- # patchview(1) Without options, show numbered files modified by the patch. With options, behave as filterdiff. ## NAME patchview, gitdiff, gitdiffview, gitshow, gitshowview, svndiff, svndiffview - Without options, show numbered files modified by the patch. With options, behave as filterdiff. ## SYNOPSIS **patchview** \[\[-n\] \| \[--line-number\]\] \[\[-p *n*\] \| \[--strip-match=*n*\]\] \[--strip=*n*\] \[--git-prefixes=*strip\|keep*\] \[--git-extended-diffs=*exclude\|include*\] \[--addprefix=*PREFIX*\] \[\[-s\] \| \[--status\]\] \[\[-E\] \| \[--empty-files-as-removed\]\] \[\[-i *PATTERN*\] \| \[--include=*PATTERN*\]\] \[\[-x *PATTERN*\] \| \[--exclude=*PATTERN*\]\] \[\[-z\] \| \[--decompress\]\] \[\[-# *RANGE*\] \| \[--hunks=*RANGE*\]\] \[--lines=*RANGE*\] \[\[-F*RANGE*\] \| \[--files=*RANGE*\]\] \[\[-H\] \| \[--with-filename\]\] \[\[-h\] \| \[--no-filename\]\] \[\[-v\] \| \[--verbose\]...\] \[*file*...\] **patchview** {\[--help\] \| \[--version\] \| \[--filter ...\] \| \[--grep ...\]} ## DESCRIPTION So what is patchview? It is a wrapper of filterdiff for use with numbered files. ``` patchview ``` (without args) is equivalent to: lsdiff --number ``` patchview -F2- ``` (or with any other args) is equivalent to: filterdiff -F2- (or whatever arguments are supplied) There are 4 scripts for working with git repos (gitdiff, gitdiffview, gitshow and gitshowview) and 2 for svn (svndiff and svndiffview). ``` svndiff ``` ``` gitdiff ``` (without args) will give the list of files modified ``` svndiff -F1 ``` ``` gitdiff -F1 ``` will show the patch of file #1 ``` svndiffview ``` ``` gitdiffview ``` pipe all patches through filterdiff to vim - -R (in read-only mode, easy to quit), showing complete patch with color. ``` svndiffview -F2 ``` ``` gitdiffview -F2 ``` (or any other args) will pipe patch of file #2 to vim - -R ``` gitshow ``` ``` gitshowview ``` This is the same as gitdiff but uses git show instead of git diff. ## OPTIONS - **-n**, **--line-number** Display the line number that each patch begins at. If verbose output is requested (using **-nv**), each hunk of each patch is listed as well. For each file that is modified, a line is generated containing the line number of the beginning of the patch, followed by a Tab character, followed by the name of the file that is modified. If **-v** is given once, following each of these lines will be one line for each hunk, consisting of a Tab character, the line number that the hunk begins at, another Tab character, the string “Hunk #”, and the hunk number (starting at 1). If the **-v** is given twice in conjunction with **-n** (i.e. **-nvv**), the format is slightly different: hunk-level descriptive text is shown after each hunk number, and the **--number-files** option is enabled. - **-N**, **--number-files** File numbers are listed, beginning at 1, before each filename. - **-#***RANGE*, **--hunks**=*RANGE* Only list hunks within the specified *RANGE*. Hunks are numbered from 1, and the range is a comma-separated list of numbers or “first-last” spans, optionally preceded by a modifier 'x' which inverts the entire range; either the first or the last in the span may be omitted to indicate no limit in that direction. - **--lines**=*RANGE* Only list hunks that contain lines from the original file that lie within the specified *RANGE*. Lines are numbered from 1, and the range is a comma-separated list of numbers or “first-last” spans, optionally preceded by a modifier 'x' which inverts the entire range; either the first or the last in the span may be omitted to indicate no limit in that direction. - **-F**=*RANGE*, **--files**=*RANGE* Only list files indicated by the specified *RANGE*. Files are numbered from 1 in the order they appear in the patch input, and the range is a comma-separated list of numbers or “first-last” spans, optionally preceded by a modifier 'x' which inverts the entire range; either the first or the last in the span may be omitted to indicate no limit in that direction. - **-p***n*, **--strip-match=***n* When matching, ignore the first *n* components of the pathname. - **--strip**=*n* Remove the first *n* components of the pathname before displaying it. - **--git-prefixes**=*strip\|keep* How to handle a/ and b/ prefixes in Git diff filenames. With strip, removes the prefixes both for filename matching (when using **-i** and **-x** options) and for filename output (similar to **--strip**). With keep (default), preserves existing behavior. Applies to both Git-specific diffs (binary files, renames, mode changes) and traditional diffs when part of a Git patch. Note: With keep, copy and rename operations are treated as if they had a/ and b/ prefixes for consistency with other Git operations. The default will change to strip in version 0.5.0. - **--git-extended-diffs**=*exclude\|include* Controls whether to process Git diffs without traditional content hunks. This includes renames, copies, mode-only changes, and binary files. With exclude (default in 0.4.x), these diffs are skipped. With include (default in 0.5.0+), these diffs are processed normally. This option affects file numbering with **-N** and file filtering with **-F**. - **--addprefix**=*PREFIX* Prefix the pathname with *PREFIX* before displaying it. - **-s**, **--status** Show file additions, modifications and removals. A file addition is indicated by a “+”, a removal by a “-”, and a modification by a “!”. - **--empty-files-as-absent**, **--empty-files-as-removed** Treat empty files as absent for the purpose of displaying file additions, modifications and removals. For example, a file with an empty old version and additions in the new version will be treated as a file addition (+) rather than a modification (!). Note: For grepdiff, only the long form is available (**-E** means **--extended-regexp** for grepdiff). - **-i***PATTERN*, **--include=***PATTERN* Include only files matching *PATTERN*. - **-x***PATTERN*, **--exclude=***PATTERN* Exclude files matching *PATTERN*. - **-z**, **--decompress** Decompress files with extensions .gz and .bz2. - **-H**, **--with-filename** Print the name of the patch file containing each patch. - **-h**, **--no-filename** Suppress the name of the patch file containing each patch. - **-v**, **--verbose** Verbose output. For the git and svn wrapper scripts (gitdiff, gitdiffview, gitshow, gitshowview, svndiff, svndiffview), this option shows the full command that is being executed. - **--help** Display a short usage message. - **--version** Display the version number of patchview. - **--filter** Behave like [**filterdiff**(1)](/filterdiff/1.md) instead. - **--grep** Behave like [**grepdiff**(1)](/grepdiff/1.md) instead. ## SEE ALSO [**lsdiff**(1)](/lsdiff/1.md),[**filterdiff**(1)](/filterdiff/1.md), [**grepdiff**(1)](/grepdiff/1.md) ## EXAMPLES We can make the following one-line script with the name difftotrunk.sh, to view the differences of two directories or svn repos (trunk and .) ``` diff ../trunk . -ru -x .svn | patchview "$@" ``` ``` ./difftotrunk.sh , will show all different files and his number. ``` ``` ./difftotrunk.sh -F3,4 , will show the differences of files #3 and #4 only. ``` ``` ./difftotrunk.sh -F3 -#1 , will show only hunk #1 of file #3. ``` ``` ./difftotrunk.sh -F3 -#x1 , will show the differences of files #3 without hunk #1 (x means that exclude). ``` ## AUTHOR **Tim Waugh** \ Package maintainer