Git Status Colouring in Eclipse Che

Git is the world’s most used version control system. It provides a lot of great features, but one thing it doesn’t do well is show you a nice diff between your changes and master in real time. Sure, Git can show you a list of changed files in the status command but that’s not enough. What developers need is to see the status of changed files versus master in real time.

Che monitors all changes and highlights them with colours on filenames in the project explorer and editor tabs, along with line colouring in the gutter of the editor.

Git Visualization While You Are Coding

Every time you change a file or perform any Git operation, Che detects it and shows you the latest status. The Project Explorer displays your currently checked out branch name next to the project folder, and files are coloured according to their Git status:

• Green means it is a new file, staged in index. The file is not in the latest commit, but it will be there after commit action is performed.
• Blue means this file is different from its latest committed version.
• Yellow means the file is untracked. Changes to such file will not be reflected in the next commit.

The same colours are displayed in the editor tabs:

Line level changes are shown with special markers in the editor:

• Yellow markers represent modified lines
• Blue represent new lines
• White triangle (in the above screenshot under line 24) shows that lines have been deleted

These small changes make a world of difference to developers working in Che.

As always please let us know your thoughts by connecting with us on twitter @eclipse_che or by filing issues in the Che GitHub repo at https://github.com/eclipse/che