# Pijul diff displays nothing and pijul diff --short yes

**URL:** <https://discourse.pijul.org/t/pijul-diff-displays-nothing-and-pijul-diff-short-yes/804>\
**Category:** Question\
**Created:** [August 26, 2021, 8:40pm UTC](https://discourse.pijul.org/t/pijul-diff-displays-nothing-and-pijul-diff-short-yes/804 "2021-08-26T20:40:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![somenxavier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/46a35a/32.png) [@somenxavier](https://discourse.pijul.org/u/somenxavier)\
**Post date:** [August 26, 2021, 8:40pm UTC](https://discourse.pijul.org/t/pijul-diff-displays-nothing-and-pijul-diff-short-yes/804/1 "2021-08-26T20:40:36Z")

</div>

I add new file:

`echo "nova prova" > prova3.md`

and `pijul diff` displays nothing meanwhile `pijul diff --short` displays:

```auto
$ pijul diff --short
U .ignore
U prova1.md
U prova3.md

```

It seems a bit paradoxical, as user point of view.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![joyously](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/discourse.pijul.org/joyously/32/266_2.png) [@joyously](https://discourse.pijul.org/u/joyously)\
**Post date:** [August 27, 2021, 1:14am UTC](https://discourse.pijul.org/t/pijul-diff-displays-nothing-and-pijul-diff-short-yes/804/2 "2021-08-27T01:14:48Z")

</div>

It does and doesn’t seem to follow the help, which says

```auto
Shows difference between two channels/changes

USAGE:
    pijul diff [FLAGS] [OPTIONS] [PREFIXES]...

ARGS:
    <PREFIXES>... Only diff those paths (files or directories). If missing, diff the entire
                     repository

FLAGS:
    -h, --help Print help information
        --json Output the diff in JSON format instead of the default change text format
        --short Show a short version of the diff
        --tag Add all the changes of this channel as dependencies (except changes implied
                       transitively), instead of the minimal dependencies
        --untracked Include the untracked files
    -V, --version Print version information

OPTIONS:
        --channel <CHANNEL> Compare with this channel
        --repository <REPO_PATH> Set the repository where this command should run. Defaults to
                                    the first ancestor of the current directory that contains a
                                    `.pijul` directory

```

So there is nothing in the default channel, so nothing to diff.  
At the same time, there is a flag for showing untracked files.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![pmeunier](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/discourse.pijul.org/pmeunier/32/4_2.png) [@pmeunier](https://discourse.pijul.org/u/pmeunier)\
**Post date:** [August 27, 2021, 4:52am UTC](https://discourse.pijul.org/t/pijul-diff-displays-nothing-and-pijul-diff-short-yes/804/3 "2021-08-27T04:52:33Z")

</div>

> [@somenxavier](#):
>
> It seems a bit paradoxical, as user point of view.

Sounds like a bug. Are you on OSX?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![somenxavier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/46a35a/32.png) [@somenxavier](https://discourse.pijul.org/u/somenxavier)\
**Post date:** [August 27, 2021, 7:10am UTC](https://discourse.pijul.org/t/pijul-diff-displays-nothing-and-pijul-diff-short-yes/804/4 "2021-08-27T07:10:10Z")

</div>

@pmeunier  
I’m in GNU/Linux, specifically Artixlinux, a derivative of Arch. I use [this package](https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/pijul/)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![pmeunier](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/discourse.pijul.org/pmeunier/32/4_2.png) [@pmeunier](https://discourse.pijul.org/u/pmeunier)\
**Post date:** [August 27, 2021, 7:22am UTC](https://discourse.pijul.org/t/pijul-diff-displays-nothing-and-pijul-diff-short-yes/804/5 "2021-08-27T07:22:45Z")

</div>

This looks a lot like a `less`-related bug. What’s the output of `less --version`?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![somenxavier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/46a35a/32.png) [@somenxavier](https://discourse.pijul.org/u/somenxavier)\
**Post date:** [August 27, 2021, 11:46am UTC](https://discourse.pijul.org/t/pijul-diff-displays-nothing-and-pijul-diff-short-yes/804/6 "2021-08-27T11:46:25Z")

</div>

@pmeunier

```auto
$ less --version
less 590 (PCRE2 regular expressions)
Copyright (C) 1984-2021 Mark Nudelman

less comes with NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
For information about the terms of redistribution,
see the file named README in the less distribution.
Home page: https://greenwoodsoftware.com/less

```