Optimizes Flutter/Dart development workflows by running commands only on changed files, significantly speeding up CI/CD pipelines and local development.

A command-line interface for running Flutter and Dart commands efficiently on changed files.

Table of Contents

• Overview
• Commands
  • exec
  • update
• Common Workflows
• Global Options
• Troubleshooting

Overview

The dart_diff_cli tool optimizes your Flutter/Dart development workflow by running commands only on files that have changed. This significantly speeds up testing, analysis, and formatting during development by focusing only on the files that matter.

Key features include:

• Running commands only on changed files
• Automatically identifying corresponding test files
• Supporting both standard projects and Melos-based mono-repos
• Providing detailed logging for troubleshooting

Commands

exec

Executes Flutter/Dart commands on changed files.

dart_diff exec [options] -- [command] [command-args]

Alias

• ddf

ddf exec [options] -- [command] [command-args]

Options:

Option	Alias	Description	Default
--branch	-b	Base branch for comparison	main
--remote	-r	Remote repository name	origin

Examples:

Run tests on changed files

# Run tests on changed files compared to main branch
dart_diff exec -- flutter test

# Run tests against a different branch
dart_diff exec -b develop -- flutter test

# Run tests with verbose output
dart_diff exec --verbose -- flutter test

Run analyzer on changed files

# Run the analyzer on changed files
dart_diff exec -- dart analyze

# Run analyzer with specific options
dart_diff exec -- dart analyze --fatal-infos

Format changed files

# Format changed files
dart_diff exec -- dart format

# Format with specific options
dart_diff exec -- dart format --set-exit-if-changed

update

Updates the dart_diff_cli to the latest version.

dart_diff update

The command:

1. Checks the current installed version
2. Compares it with the latest version available on pub.dev
3. Updates to the latest version if needed

Common Workflows

Speeding up test runs during development

# Run tests only on the modified files
dart_diff exec -- flutter test

# Run tests with coverage
dart_diff exec -- flutter test --coverage

Pre-commit checks

# Format only changed files
dart_diff exec -- dart format --set-exit-if-changed

# Analyze only changed files
dart_diff exec -- dart analyze

# Run tests for changed files
dart_diff exec -- flutter test

CI/CD optimization

# In your CI pipeline, compare against the target branch
dart_diff exec -b main -- flutter test --no-pub --coverage

Global Options

The following options can be used with any command:

Option	Alias	Description
--version	-v	Print the current version of the CLI
--verbose		Enable verbose logging including all shell commands
--help	-h	Display help information for commands

Troubleshooting

Command Not Found

If the dart_diff command is not found after installation, ensure that your Dart SDK's bin directory is in your PATH.

For Unix-based systems:

export PATH="$PATH":"$HOME/.pub-cache/bin"

For Windows:

set PATH=%PATH%;%LOCALAPPDATA%\Pub\Cache\bin

No Files to Process

If you see "No files to process" and expect there to be changes, check:

• That you're using the correct base branch with -b
• That you have uncommitted changes in your repository
• That the changes include Dart files
• That the file paths are correctly detected

Try running with --verbose to see more detailed output.

Error: Not a git repository

The command must be run from within a Git repository. Change to the root directory of your project.

Command execution fails

If your command fails to execute:

1. Try running the command directly without dart_diff to see if it works
2. Verify that the command is available in your environment
3. Run with the --verbose flag to see detailed logs
4. Check if the specified branch exists and is accessible

Contributing

Contributions are welcome and appreciated! Here's how you can contribute:

• Report bugs: Open an issue describing the bug and how to reproduce it
• Suggest features: Open an issue describing your idea and its benefits
• Submit PRs: Implement bug fixes or features (please open an issue first)
• Improve docs: Fix typos, clarify explanations, add examples

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Acknowledgements

Originally created by Ajay Kumar & Dipangshu Roy.

Special thanks to all contributors who have helped improve this project.