Properly diff YAML while version controlling (by Git)

• Why: Inconsistent key order messes up the diff result when version controlling YAML files.
• Platform: Windows

Any tool to sort the keys?

• google: yaml sort
• yml-sorter - npm

Setup the command

• node.js
  • Option 'Add to PATH' is not required. (Just embedded in the script later on)
• npm install -g yml-sorter
  • Installed under %AppData%\npm.

Access the command from Git Bash

• ~/bin (/c/Users/<user-name>/bin) is built in the PATH environment variable of Git Bash.
• Thus, place the following script in that directory, and named as yaml-sort.bat.
  • %ProgramFiles%\nodejs for node.
  • %AppData%\npm for yml-sorter.

@path %ProgramFiles%\nodejs;%AppData%\npm
@yml-sorter -di "%~1" 2> nul

Config your Git

• git config diff.yaml.textconv yaml-sort.bat
• In .gitattribute: *.yml diff=yaml

Check Customizing Git - Git Attributes for more details.