BaseMax / go-config-diff

A semantic configuration comparison tool for infrastructure and application configs. Compare YAML, JSON, TOML, and INI files intelligently - detecting meaningful differences while ignoring formatting and ordering variations. A semantic configuration comparison tool for infra and app configs.

0 0 Language: Go License: MIT Updated: 3mo ago

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README

go-config-diff

Features

🎯 Semantic Comparison: Compares configuration semantics, not just text
📝 Multiple Formats: Supports YAML, JSON, TOML, and INI files
🎨 Colored Output: Beautiful, easy-to-read colored diffs in terminal
📊 Machine-Readable: JSON output for integration with other tools
🔄 Order-Independent: Ignores key ordering in maps/objects
🧩 Nested Structures: Deep comparison of nested configurations
📈 Change Summary: Quick overview of additions, removals, and modifications

Installation

From Source

go install github.com/BaseMax/go-config-diff/cmd/go-config-diff@latest

Build Locally

git clone https://github.com/BaseMax/go-config-diff.git
cd go-config-diff
go build -o go-config-diff ./cmd/go-config-diff

Usage

Basic Usage

go-config-diff config1.yaml config2.yaml

Output Formats

Colored Output (default)

Displays changes with color-coded indicators:

🟢 Green + for additions
🔴 Red - for removals
🟡 Yellow ~ for modifications

go-config-diff config1.yaml config2.yaml

Plain Text Output

For environments without color support:

go-config-diff -format=plain config1.json config2.json

JSON Output

Machine-readable format for automation:

go-config-diff -format=json config1.toml config2.toml

Show Summary

Display a summary of changes:

go-config-diff -summary config1.ini config2.ini

Version Information

go-config-diff -version

Examples

YAML Comparison

$ go-config-diff examples/config1.yaml examples/config2.yaml
~ database.credentials.password
  - "secret123"
  + "newsecret456"
~ database.name
  - "myapp"
  + "myapp_prod"
+ features[3]
  + "caching"
+ server.timeout
  + 60

JSON Output Format

$ go-config-diff -format=json examples/config1.json examples/config2.json
{
  "has_changes": true,
  "changes": [
    {
      "type": "modified",
      "path": "database.name",
      "old_value": "myapp",
      "new_value": "myapp_prod"
    },
    {
      "type": "added",
      "path": "server.timeout",
      "new_value": 60
    }
  ]
}

With Summary

$ go-config-diff -summary examples/config1.toml examples/config2.toml
Summary: 2 added, 5 modified

~ database.name
  - "myapp"
  + "myapp_prod"
+ features[3]
  + {"name":"caching"}

Supported File Formats

Format	Extensions	Description
YAML	`.yaml`, `.yml`	YAML Ain't Markup Language
JSON	`.json`	JavaScript Object Notation
TOML	`.toml`	Tom's Obvious, Minimal Language
INI	`.ini`, `.conf`	Initialization files

How It Works

Parse: Each configuration file is parsed using format-specific parsers
Normalize: Data is converted to a unified internal AST (Abstract Syntax Tree)
Compare: Semantic comparison detects actual differences
Report: Changes are formatted for human or machine consumption

Key Capabilities

Semantic Comparison: Compares actual values, not file formatting
Type Awareness: Understands different data types (strings, numbers, booleans, arrays, maps)
Deep Traversal: Compares nested structures at any depth
Path Tracking: Shows exact location of changes using dot notation
Order Independence: Map/object key ordering doesn't affect comparison

Exit Codes

0: No differences found
1: Differences found or error occurred

Command Line Options

Usage: go-config-diff [options] <file1> <file2>

Options:
  -format string
        Output format: colored, plain, json (default "colored")
  -summary
        Show summary of changes
  -version
        Show version information

Use Cases

🔧 DevOps: Compare configuration files across environments
🚀 CI/CD: Validate configuration changes in pipelines
🔍 Auditing: Review configuration differences for compliance
🐛 Debugging: Identify configuration drift between systems
📦 Releases: Verify configuration changes before deployment

Development

Running Tests

go test ./... -v

Project Structure

go-config-diff/
├── cmd/
│   └── go-config-diff/     # CLI application
│       └── main.go
├── pkg/
│   ├── ast/                # Unified AST model
│   │   ├── ast.go
│   │   └── ast_test.go
│   ├── parser/             # Format parsers
│   │   ├── parser.go
│   │   └── parser_test.go
│   ├── diff/               # Comparison logic
│   │   ├── diff.go
│   │   └── diff_test.go
│   └── output/             # Output formatters
│       └── output.go
├── examples/               # Sample config files
└── README.md

License

This project is licensed under the GPL-3.0 License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

Author

Max Base

Repository

https://github.com/BaseMax/go-config-diff

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