Diff gerbers with git diff

November 17, 2016

Do you want to have git show you what changed on your gerbers? My friend Jason shared his setup with me.

Tell git to use gerbv for diffs

~/.gitconfig:

[difftool]
    prompt = false

[difftool "gerbv"]
    cmd = "gerbv -a $LOCAL $REMOTE --background=#000000 --foreground=#ff000055 --foreground=#0000ff"

Recompile gerbv to default to CAIOR for rendering

diff --git a/src/main.c b/src/main.c
index 67a561b..58f0142 100644
--- a/src/main.c
+++ b/src/main.c
@@ -398,12 +398,7 @@ main(int argc, char *argv[])
     mainProject->execpath = g_path_get_dirname(argv[0]);
 
     /* set default rendering mode */
-#ifdef WIN32
-    /* Cairo seems to render faster on Windows, so use it for default */
     screenRenderInfo.renderType = GERBV_RENDER_TYPE_CAIRO_NORMAL;
-#else
-    screenRenderInfo.renderType = GERBV_RENDER_TYPE_GDK;
-#endif
 
     logToFileOption = FALSE;
     logToFileFilename = NULL;

Now you can do this

git difftool -t gerbv HEAD~2 -- Gerber/proto002-B_Cu.gbl

and see this