In the magit-status buffer I can press d-wd
on a file to open a magit-diff buffer with the diff of that specific file without whitespace changes. When I go back to magit-status though, the diffs there still show the original whitespace changes. I'm not sure if this is built into magit already but what I'd like is for the original magit-status buffer to ignore whitespace changes as well (being able to toggle this would be amazing)

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2 Answers
In magit-status
, enter the diff mode by pressing d
like you've done. Make your -w
change. Then press C-x
to see that there is an extended magit menu with more available items. You'll then see that C-s
is a means to Save the settings you've made (e.g., --ignore-all-space
) for future sessions.

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3This is nice though what I was hoping for was the magit status buffer ignoring whitespace as well. Saving this setting allows me to see the diff in a new buffer when pressing `dd` on a file but the magit status buffer still shows whitespace – irregular Jan 08 '20 at 18:26
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Thinking on it further though, ignoring whitespace on the magit status buffer doesn't seem like a good idea – irregular Jan 08 '20 at 18:51
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@irregular see https://github.com/magit/magit/issues/204#issuecomment-255276768 or my answer below :) – robert Aug 20 '21 at 10:03
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@irregular, why doesn't it seem like a good idea? – Drew Verlee Mar 28 '23 at 19:00
I had just this query. I think it makes sense to be able to ignore whitespace in the status buffer because you'll often want to see 'at a glance' just the significant changes you have made. In particular, when rebasing the extra hassle of switching to another window for this kind of sanity check can disturb what is already a fairly delicate workflow.
I found the solution here, reproduced for convenience:
You can press
D
(magit-diff-refresh-popup
), set the flags you want (e.g.,-b
for--ignore-space-change
), and then hitg
.
You can also do C-x C-s
as described in the accepted answer or w
instead of g
to save the defaults for again.

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