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brunno
rubyist5eva
Sublime Merge is a fanastic tool (I use it) but it's less of a merge tool and more of a git client, which I think is an important distinction.
forrestthewoods
Yeah. I would be interested in using Sublime Merge as a Merge tool for projects based in Perforce and Mercurial. But last I checked it wasn't really capable of that.
It should have been called Sublime Git. Alas.
mackrevinack
a nice feature of sublime merge that i haven't seen in other programs is actually showing you the git commands that will run when you press whatever button
ncann
Also the ability to create custom menu items (e.g for any context menu) for whatever command you desire. It's a game changer for me that I haven't seen in any other git client.
Also it's lightning fast and relatively bug free compared to the mess that is Sourcetree, which used to be my favorite client but then went utterly downhill.
btschaegg
I don't know if it's on par with SM, but Git Fork has a system for custom commands which result in custom context menu entries in most cases.
It uses categories like per-commit or per-branch commands.
gumby
Magit does this
Imagenuity
Sourcetree also shows the git commands it runs, but not before it runs them.
csmiller
i believe the IntelliJ Git tool window does this as well FWIW
recov
Same here. So far it's my favorite UX for solving non-trivial merge conflicts.
ncann
Same. I don't know why but there's something so intuitive and easy to use and yet so powerful about Sublime Merge's merge tool that it quickly became my favorite after having used a lot of different other tools in the past (TortoiseGit, Meld, etc.)
LeicaLatte
I don't understand the comparison. Isn't meld free?
da39a3ee
Not sure what you're trying to say. Free vs not free is not the most important axis to consider when evaluating software.
wallstprog
Another fan of Beyond Compare here, but I want to point out something everyone else has missed so far, which is that BC is great for comparing all sorts of files, not just code.
For example, I use its "Table Compare" feature to compare log files from different machines, sorted by timestamp. This lets me easily see the order of operations in a distributed system.
j1elo
I've been using Meld since years ago, and it's my default go-to diff viewer. The visual style they implemented helps me a lot to reason about how lines have been added or deleted from documents in the side by side comparison. Very neat!
The directory contents tree diff is also really useful.
I wish they made it even easier the basic case of comparing aribtrary text. Maybe it should be the default mode after opening the program, instead of having to click on a couple buttons, because I use it a lot to manually paste pieces of text. For example, logs from a server during testing, to compare what went different between runs.
Another welcomed addition would be "ignore masks". Some kind of regex input that could be used to quickly tell Meld which parts of the text to skip comparing. That way, comparison of log files could be made where a timestamps column would be ignored.
Vinnl
Yeah, I use it a lot, but 80% of that is comparing arbitrary text that I just want to copy-paste in. To be fair, that's just two clicks now (first click "File" comparison, then "blank comparison"), but that still feels a bit cumbersome.
andrewshadura
Meld already supports text filters!
j1elo
Yes! There are text filters but those are kind of a static setting, found somewhere in the Preferences menu. When I wrote my comment I had in mind some user input that could be more interactive for one off, line based filtering. Although you are right, the already existing filter settings can be used for what I said, if one already has a regex that works fine for the current text being compared.
synergy20
absolutely,meld is my favorite,along with the filters
diego_moita
IMHO, Meld is the second best open source tool for doing this.
On Windows, WinMerge[1] is a better alternative. Too bad is Windows only.
For a non-FOSS and cross platform solution I recommend BeyondCompare (U$30.00)[2]. It replicates most of WinMerge UI.
bmitc
I setup Git to use Perforce’s P4Merge as the Git mergetool. P4Merge is cross-platform and free and quite good.
diego_moita
There are 2 things to consider when comparing them: 2 panel diffs and 3 panel merging.
P4Merge is very good at the second but not so much at the first.
Also, to this date it doesn't have an OS-X version for M1 CPUs.
dataflow
I actually don't understand what people love about BC. The only thing I find it extremely useful for is the occasional files where inline diffs are practically mandatory, like CSVs. Other than that, I generally find it frustrating compared to TortoiseGitMerge, except perhaps for some very specific/unusual scenarios. In particular the line highlighting is annoying - instead of coloring the lines that were added vs. removed differently, it colors lines according to whether they're an "important difference" or "unimportant difference" (?!), which is borderline useless to me. What do people love about it so much?
memsom
I’ve been using BC since the early 2000’s, so probably more than 15 years. I know it backwards and forwards. If you set it up right, it is pretty powerful. It allows a lot of the stuff that other tools fail on to be overcome. Manual alignment is a dream. The rules based comparison is very nice. Ignoring unimportant differences removes pretty much all the white space differences. The ease of selecting arbitrary blocks and moving them left or right is powerful. I’ve tried both Windiff and kdiff3 and both have missing features.
Back before git, it was common to take a massive set of changes and merge them manually when merging branches, and BC was the only tool that made it painless for me.
I stumped up my own cash for a pro license and I use it almost daily even now.
cecilpl2
I'll add the ability to specify and tag regexes ("comment", "timestamp", etc) on a file-type by file-type basis, and then specify various tags as "unimportant" for the current diff is super powerful.
It means you can do things like compare two system logs from different times and have it highlight you exactly the differences you care about.
dataflow
Interesting. Have you tried TortoiseGitDiff? I'd be curious what you think of that in comparison if so.
Update: I just downloaded Meld. It literally takes ~half a second to change the cursor location when I click in a highlighted region, which is already making me dislike it. Is this normal?
larschdk
The things that makes it borderline useless to you is actually one reason I like it so much. Makes it really easy to do code reviews and focus on what actually matters. Also, it was until somewhat recently the undisputed best 3-way merge tool. Meld gets close, but to me Meld's UI is sluggish and fuzzy (on Windows) while BC is snappy and sharp.
dataflow
Maybe I need to try Meld at some point. Have you tried TortoiseGitDiff by any chance?
olvy0
+1 for TortoiseGitMerge, which is my go-to tool these days. It's Windows only but not a problem for me since I mostly work in Windows.
My SO adores Meld, but she works with Linux. I tried using it but couldn't get used to it. She also makes fun of me (half in jest) because I use Tortoise Git instead of the command line...
tigerlily
I use TortoiseGit too, ever since I used TortoiseSVN back in the day. Highly underrated, and ridiculously powerful, I’ve practically never had to look up “how to do x” :)
7kmph
And the theme is unusable on KDE dark theme to a red blue color blinded user.
zem
winmerge is definitely the best windows-only open source app I've used. surprised it's never been ported to linux.
Shorn
WinMerge for comparing two individual files. BeyondCompare for comparing deep nested directory structures.
crispyalmond
Do you think the pro version of BeyondCompare is worth it compared to the standard one?
memsom
Yes. They often have sales, and I picked up Pro for about the price of Standard a few years back. If you see a sale, get Pro. If you are not worried about the pro feature set, get standard.
The other thing is that the trial used to be very fair. I don’t know if they changed it, but it used to give you “days of usage” not contiguous days. I once used it for about 5 months because the 30 day trial only counted the days I actually used it and I saved using it for when I really needed it, and used WinMerge when I could instead.
Beyond Compare is a gem.
rubyist5eva
Yes, I bought it years ago and it's been one of my goto tools. Worth every penny, plenty of features beyond just being a git mergetool.
diego_moita
Depends...
Pro version gives you 3 panel merging. If you use that a lot then it might be worth it. Or, instead, use P4Merge for it.
BeetleB
You need the Pro version to do a 3-way merge.
codedokode
Meld might be useful for comparison, but in my opinion it is inconvenient as a git merge tool. For git merge I need four panels: original file, version A, version B, merged result. Meld has only three panels.
Currently I am using KDiff3. It is a little buggy and doesn't have a nice UI but it is the best open source merging tool that I am aware of. It allows choosing lines from original file, from A, B and manual editing.
I noticed that certain popular and highly praised commercial IDE also provides only 3-panel interface for merging. This makes resolving conflicts more difficult and prone to errors.
dflock
My .gitconfig for using meld at the git merge tool - which gives you that:
[alias]
mt = mergetool
[merge]
tool = mymeld
conflictstyle = diff3
[mergetool "mymeld"]
# Gives you meld, with three comparison tabs. Assuming you're merging others changes into
# your branch, this shows you:
# - 1st tab: yours|merged result|theirs (do the merge here into the middle pane)
# - 2nd tab: base vs your changes (look at just your changes)
# - 3rd tab: base vs their changes (look at just their changes)
cmd = meld $LOCAL $BASE $REMOTE --output $MERGED --diff $BASE $LOCAL --diff $BASE $REMOTE --auto-mergeanamexis
> original file, version A, version B, merged result
Isn't one of version A or B the original file? What am I missing?
jrib
http://psung.blogspot.com/2011/02/reducing-merge-headaches-g...
This is a good discussion on the topic including the diff3 option git has.
rubyist5eva
the "original" file is the common ancestor of version A and version B
rdiddly
In a merge conflict versions A & B would tend to be different changes made to the original, usually made by different people.
thelittlenag
I really wish kdiff3 would get a modern update.
nyanpasu64
kdiff3 does have a modern version: https://invent.kde.org/sdk/kdiff3/.
Unfortunately versions starting at 1.9.0 are drastically buggier than 1.8.5: Ctrl+C being incorrectly enabled and disabled (https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=444636), merge errors (https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=437570, fixed), drastic slowdown when loading CRLF files (https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=450411, fixed), recurring assertion errors (didn't personally encounter, but https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=426301, https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=442618), large chunks of Git history producing unusable binaries that corrupt memory or print assertion errors when loading files, etc. I stopped following KDiff3 development and decided to pin 1.8.5 on my system, which actually works.
Another fork of KDiff3 is https://github.com/michaelxzhang/kdiff3. I haven't tested it, but I hope the alternative diff coloration makes it easier to see single-word/space insertions and deletions within a line (which is something I often fail to notice in mainline KDiff3).
JSoet
I agree 100% on the utility of a 4 panel diff, but I'd be careful using kdiff3... I also used it for quite a while but found that it would "auto resolve" some merge conflicts which git would flag, and I found it would sometimes auto resolve them wrong (maybe about 10-20% of the time?), and I couldn't figure out how to turn this feature off... I'm using tortoise git merge now (which also does do some auto resolve but only simpler resolutions)
bacon_waffle
According to `kdiff3 --help`, there's a flag --qall "Do not solve conflicts automatically.".
I've not noticed the problem you describe, so can't confirm whether it is solved by that flag - a while ago I mostly switched to Sublime Merge from kdiff3.
a-dub
i've used kdiff3 for some hairy merges with good results.
back in the days when i was responsible for regular merges for a pretty big project (weekly or so, 10-30 devs on both sides, n*1e7 LoC), i took the time to learn ediff and did my merges in lucid/xemacs.
i had colleagues at the time who had nice things to say about beyondcompare.
more recently i have seen this meld thing and it has piqued my curiosity.
favorite tool for quick no-frills out-of-practice-with-real-tools visual diff is fldiff built on fltk.
distances
Another vote from here. I've tried a good number of merge tools but always go back to KDiff3. It has the best automatic merge conflict resolver I've seen, and really just enables me to fix things and continue.
I often have colleagues who are inexplicably afraid of merge conflicts and try to negotiate who's working on which parts of the app. I think a proper merge tool could help them to overcome this.
loloquwowndueo
Since everyone else is mentioning other tools, here’s my mention for vimdiff. I think I have meld installed but rarely use it because vimdiff is usually enough. As a bonus I get to use my usual editing keys when working with it.
zmmmmm
same here!
it may not be the best merge tool in existence but it's adequate (which is actually, suprisingly good, given it is not at all its intended function) and at that point having all my standard vim configuration, editing capabilities etc. beats anything another tool would bring to the table.
Not to mention, 100% terminal UI and built-into-vim means I can use it everywhere and anywhere without thinking about it.
noselasd
If you want to use it with git:
git config --global diff.tool meld
git config --global --add difftool.prompt false
gebruikersnaam
On my Ubuntu based (Xubuntu, Mint) workstations this works without any configuration
$ meld .vocram
That command is only for diffing against Git HEAD. `git difftool` supports all the ways to diff with Git.
bhaak
For visualization I really like kdiff3.
Or on terminals https://github.com/mookid/diffr with specific settings that use 256 colors for highlighting word differences as well.
But for manual merging I haven't found anything better than ediff. That's the only reason I install emacs on my work machines. Seemless integration into a text editor is just unbeatable.
funstuff007
I like kdiff3 better for 3 way merges, and meld for comparing two files.
dflock
My .gitconfig for using meld at the git merge tool:
[alias]
mt = mergetool
[merge]
tool = mymeld
conflictstyle = diff3
[mergetool "mymeld"]
# Gives you meld, with three comparison tabs. Assuming you're merging others changes into
# your branch, this shows you:
# - 1st tab: yours|merged result|theirs (do the merge here into the middle pane)
# - 2nd tab: base vs your changes (look at just your changes)
# - 3rd tab: base vs their changes (look at just their changes)
cmd = meld $LOCAL $BASE $REMOTE --output $MERGED --diff $BASE $LOCAL --diff $BASE $REMOTE --auto-mergelaurent123456
BeyondCompare is much better and available on macOS too.
JakeAl
I've been a passionate Beyond Compare user for about 2 decades now. I swear by it. Great for diffing images as well.
memsom
Me too. It is an amazing tool.
phren0logy
I'll have to check it out, but I'm pretty happy with Kaleidoscope. https://kaleidoscope.app
BeetleB
Adding another vote for BeyondCompare. It's not free, but it's fantastic.
NKosmatos
I use Beyond Compare mainly for sync of folders by comparing files (sizes, dates) and not for file contents diff as such. Part of my backup strategy while copying/syncing file between windows/mac/NAS ;-)
jamesfmilne
Another vote for Beyond Compare here, 10 years service with Git.
HelloNurse
> On OS X, Meld is not yet officially supported. For pre-built binaries, these OS X builds are the best option.
> You can also get Meld from MacPorts, Fink or Brew; none of these methods are supported.
Can anyone recommend any of these unsupported options? The best diff GUI tool I've been able to find for OSX is DiffMerge (https://sourcegear.com/diffmerge/) on the App Store, and I'd like to have a tree view for folder comparisons.
Terretta
Since you mention folders:
oneplane
Sometimes when I want a visual representation I use Apple's FileMerge, but for everything else I just use diff and patch.
andreineculau
I second that. DiffMerge every day for almost 10y
poloniculmov
I'm using the build from Brew, works fine.
maxekman
Maybe strange question; but which diff and merge tools are not targeted at developers?
Edit: what->which
gcheong
Not in any way affiliated with them but “Snowtrack is the intuitive versioning tool for creatives.”: https://snowtrack.io/about.html
technobabbler
Wikipedia, Google Docs, Microsoft Word... they're far simpler systems, but still useful for everyday edits
saurik
These have some diff functionality but are not "diff / merge tools". There are diff tools, though, targeted at lawyers for legal work: "show me the differences between these two contracts" and the such (which most developer-oriented tools actually suck at as they care too much about "lines" and whitespace).
technobabbler
I don't think it's that black and white? Google Docs, for example, lets you individually review and accept/deny/revise each individual suggested change. It's not a 3-way merge like programmers are used to seeing, but it's the same idea... you start with an original, see someone else's changes, and decide which to keep, or you can take their changes and further edit. And comment in-line too.
I've never used a lawyer's diff tool, but my IDE (IntelliJ) ignores whitespace and lines.
ephbit
> There are diff tools, though, targeted at lawyers for legal work: "show me the differences between these two contracts" ...
Do you have some examples from the top of your head?
Comparing the content of PDF files would be awesome, and I don't mean comparing graphically but textually.
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As a long time Sublime Text[1] user, I've been using Sublime Merge[2] since the day it's been launched and it brings me the same speed and minimalism I get with Sublime Text and has evolved quite a lot to be able to do most things I need in a merge tool.
Not affiliated with them in any way by the way.
[1] https://www.sublimetext.com/ [2] https://www.sublimemerge.com/