Ediff: view whitespace differences

Question

Is there a way to make Ediff highlight whitespace using a different color, the way it does for non-whitespace differences?

For example, here are two regions with only whitespace differences:

And here are two regions with non-whitespace differences:

The non-whitespace differences are highlighted with ediff-fine-diff-* faces, while whitespace differences are not. I'd like some way to tell what the whitespace differences are.

Make sure `ediff-diff-options` is not set to `"-w"`, which tells the `diff` program to ignore white space. May not solve the problem, but might help you get there. — Phil Hudson, Oct 22 '16 at 11:35
I don't have `ediff-diff-options` set to `-w`. With your setup, are your whitespace differences highlighted? — Tianxiang Xiong, Oct 22 '16 at 16:22
No, not even after pressing `*` (`ediff-toggle-autorefine`). — Phil Hudson, Oct 24 '16 at 17:56

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 11 '17 at 22:08

1

Seems like this feature is simply not supported.

The highlighting of fine differences is referred to as "refinement" by Ediff, and explicitly skips whitespace.

Note that refinement ignores spaces, tabs, and newlines.

answered Aug 11 '17 at 22:08

Tianxiang Xiong

3,848
16
27

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 19 '17 at 20:26

One way you can do this is by enabling whitespace mode in all the ediff buffers. This can be done by Meta + x + whitespace-mode

It may be enough just to enable in the merge buffer. I'm not sure how you might go about enabling by default, but there will be a way.

Ediff: view whitespace differences

2 Answers2