git diff for binary Apple property list files

In the same vein as diffing UTF-16 .strings files in git:

It’s easy to set up git to show diffs for binary .plist files.

Add a textconv key for this conversion to your ~/.gitconfig:

git config --global diff.plist.textconv "plutil -convert xml1 -o -"

In your global .gitconfig, it’ll look like this:

[diff "plist"]
  textconv = plutil -convert xml1 -o -

Add a mapping from filename to diff command to your project’s .gitattributes file:

echo "*.plist diff=plist" >> .gitattributes

(Bonus points) Set up a global .gitattributes file via this Q&A on Stack Overflow to always do this:

git config --global core.attributesfile $HOME/.gitattributes
echo "*.plist diff=plist" >> ~/.gitattributes

What this looks like in practice:

% ± file Info.plist
Info.plist: Apple binary property list

% ± git log -p Info.plist

commit 5ba260528509cca6ac9e6a9080543dbfbc7a7561
Author: Christopher Bowns
Date:   Thu Nov 12 21:42:06 2015 -0800

    A new key-value.

diff --git a/Info.plist b/Info.plist
index 313794c..a619e52 100644
--- a/Info.plist
+++ b/Info.plist
@@ -2,6 +2,8 @@
 >>
 
 
+       ANewKey
+       IAmAValue
        CFBundleDevelopmentRegion
        en
        CFBundleExecutable