Sourcetree diff is very slow on ipynb files

[Neznakomec]

Hello, I tried different versions of SourceTree for Windows (3.4.30 and 3.4.23 an older one),

and I see that when I'm clicking on some *.ipynb file in git commit, I have a very slow processing it to show lines with code changes. And the whole app is hanging 1-2 min while diff is not shown.

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Probably it's related to particular repository and corresponding git setttings:

https://github.com/lysukhin/vk-academy-dl-cv

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Just a guess, maybe it's related to the fact repository created on Mac,

but I'm working with it on Windows, and also I have

core.autocrlf = true

Maybe it's all very slow because of different line endings. (external utility) DiffMerge also very slow in processing diff to ipynb files in that repository

[Tomislav Tobijas · Accepted solution]

Hey @Neznakomec ,

I'm not that familiar with Jupyter Notebooks, but it would probably depend on how large these JSON files are. From what I've found, .ipynb files often contain long, single-line strings of metadata and Sourcetree's diff engine probably attempts to process these as standard text. But then a single line or the raw diff data exceeds certain thresholds and the application can hang. 

core.autocrlf = true > this should be correct (Git to convert LF to CRLF), but this can also force Sourcetree to calculate a diff for the entire file, rather than just the modified code. 🫤 

What you could try (I've only found this and not tested it):

To prevent Sourcetree from attempting to render these complex diffs, tell Git to treat them as binary files.

• Create or edit a .gitattributes file in your repository root.

• Add the line: *.ipynb -diff

• This will stop Sourcetree from hanging, as it will no longer try to generate a text-based diff for these files

Or you can try to use a specialized diff tool or optimize Git config. 👀

But this is a bit out of my 'domain' - potentially someone worked more with .ipynb files and could share some insights.

Cheers,
Tobi

[Neznakomec]

Thank you Tobi, probably it's the best solution (to ignore ipynb files ONLY IN THAT repository)

Probably this particular repository had a problem
because of different (Windows and Mac) line endings or because IPYNB files shrinked to one-line JSON or smth like that...

[Tomislav Tobijas]

Glad it helped! 😊

Yeah, in that case, ignoring only *.ipynb files in this repository sounds like the safest workaround. If you still need to compare notebook changes later, maybe a dedicated notebook diff tool would be a better option than relying on Sourcetree’s default diff view.

[Arkadiusz Wroblewski]

Hello @Tomislav Tobijas  and @Neznakomec 

Maybe Nbdime. 

[Neznakomec]

.