Subject: Re: [PATCH] diff: add --no-indicators option

From: Junio C Hamano <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 19 Dec 2025 20:58:03 +0900

"Harald Nordgren via GitGitGadget" <[email-masked]> writes:

> From: Harald Nordgren <[email-masked]>
>
> Add --no-indicators to replace '+', '-', and ' ' indicators in the
> left margin with spaces. Colors are preserved, allowing diffs to be
> distinguished by color alone.
>
> This is useful when copy-pasting diff output, as the indicators no
> longer need to be manually removed.

If you are cutting more than two lines, then the first column,
whether it is '+' or neutered ' ', needs to be removed.  And even if
you are cutting just one line, you'd still need to deal with the
byte in the first column, whether it is '+' or ' ', by either
cutting from the second column or removing the first column after
pasting.

Also, if your terminal emulator allows cutting from Nth column to
the right (e.g., "screen" allows this), it does not matter what the
first letter is.  You can just say "cut from the 2nd column" and you
are done.

So, I am not sure if this is something we want to support.  Are
there other people's "diff" implementations (like GNU or BSD) that
has something like that?  If not, it takes a lot more to convince
others.