I noticed some weird spacing when comparing files with git diff --color-words. The space before a colored word disappears sometimes. $ git --version git version 2.11.0.485.g4e59582ff echo "FOO foo; foo = bar" > a echo "FOO foo = baz" > b git diff --color-words --no-index a b FOOfoo; foo = barbaz There should be a space after FOO in the diff, even if git doesn't think "foo" and "foo;" are the same word. If I remove the semicolon, it looks better, but in fact it only moves the error later. The missing space is now between the two "foo" words. echo "FOO foo foo = bar" > a echo "FOO foo = baz" > b git diff --color-words --no-index a b FOO foofoo = barbaz Here's the same with the color codes changed to text for purposes of this email: echo "FOO foo; foo = bar" > a echo "FOO foo = baz" > b git diff --color-words --no-index a b | tr \\033 E FOOE[31mfoo;E[m foo = E[31mbarE[mE[32mbazE[m echo "FOO foo foo = bar" > a echo "FOO foo = baz" > b git diff --color-words --no-index a b | tr \\033 E FOO fooE[31mfooE[m = E[31mbarE[mE[32mbazE[m