Demo

khttpdiff

Compare HTTP responses from two servers and visualize the differences. Ideal for testing API migrations, load balancer configurations, and server deployments.

Table of Contents

1. Overview
2. Features
3. Installation
4. Usage
5. Examples
6. Configuration
7. Contributing
8. License

Overview

khttpdiff performs identical HTTP requests against two different servers and presents a detailed comparison of their responses. The tool presents differences in status codes, headers, and response bodies with color-coded output. For optimal visualization, use a terminal that supports ANSI escape sequences.

Features

Configure requests with custom methods, headers, and request bodies. Output differences are color-coded for easy identification, or use monochrome mode for unsupported terminals. Integrate external diff tools for detailed body comparison. The tool supports both secure and insecure SSL connections.

Installation

Pre-built Binary

Download the khttpdiff.zip folder containing the khttpdiff.exe executable. No Java installation required.

Adding to PATH (Windows)

1. Copy the khttpdiff folder to a permanent location (e.g., C:\Program Files\khttpdiff)
2. Open System Properties (Win + Pause/Break or right-click This PC > Properties)
3. Click Advanced system settings
4. Click Environment Variables
5. Under System variables, find and select Path, then click Edit
6. Click New and add the full path to the khttpdiff folder
7. Click OK to save changes
8. Restart your terminal

Basic syntax:

khttpdiff [options] url1 url2

Available Options

method <method> : HTTP method to use (default: GET)
body <data> : Request body for POST/PUT requests
host <host> : Custom Host header value
agent <ua> : User-Agent string (default: khttpdiff/0.1)
ignore <headers> : Comma-separated list of headers to exclude from comparison
header <hdr> : Single custom header in "Key: Value" format
headers <file> : File containing custom headers (one per line)
insecure : Allow insecure SSL connections (skip certificate validation)
diffapp <app> : External diff tool for body comparison
mono : Disable color output
help : Display help information

Examples

Basic GET Request Comparison

khttpdiff https://httpbin.org/get https://httpbin.org/uuid

POST Request with Custom Headers

khttpdiff -method POST -body '{"name":"test"}' -header "Content-Type: application/json" https://httpbin.org/post https://postman-echo.com/post

Ignore Specific Headers

khttpdiff -ignore Date,Server https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts/1 https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts/2

Using External Diff Tool

khttpdiff -diffapp fc https://dummyjson.com/products/1 https://dummyjson.com/products/2

Headers from File

Create a headers.txt file:

Authorization: Bearer token123
Content-Type: application/json
X-Custom-Header: value

Then run:

khttpdiff -headers headers.txt -method POST -body '{"test":true}' https://httpbin.org/post https://postman-echo.com/post

Insecure SSL Connection

khttpdiff -insecure https://self-signed.badssl.com https://httpbin.org/get

Configuration

Header Files Format

Headers files should contain one header per line in "Key: Value" format. Lines starting with "//" are treated as comments and ignored. Empty lines are also ignored.

Example:

// Authentication headers
Authorization: Bearer token123
// Content headers
Content-Type: application/json
Accept: application/json

Contributing

Contributions are welcome. Please read the CONTRIBUTING.md file for guidelines on how to submit issues, feature requests, and pull requests.

License

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

Acknowledgments

Inspired by httpdiff by John Graham-Cumming.