You are here:

Adding diff/merge applications

You can add a diff/merge application to use to compare or merge specific file types.

Note: User options apply only to the current user account logged in to the computer. Some user options may be disabled, which indicates they are set on the server and cannot be changed.

1. Choose Tools > User Options then select the Diff/Merge category.

2. Click Add.

The Diff/Merge Settings dialog box opens.

3. Enter the File extensions to associate with the application. Separate extensions with a semicolon.

4. Select Diff or Merge from the Diff/Merge list to specify the application type to add.

5. Enter or select any diff/merge options. The available options depend on the type of application you are configuring.

Diff application options

Select a Compare with option to specify the utility or application to use to diff files with the specified file extensions.

Option	Uses:
Binary comparison	The internal binary file comparison utility to perform a byte-to-byte comparison between two binary files.
Integrated Guiffy	Guiffy to compare two text files. See the Guiffy help for more information.
Integrated image compare	The internal utility to compare image files.
Microsoft Word	Word’s compare/merge utility. (Windows only)
Selected application	An application you select. Click Browse to select the application. %1 and %2 variables are automatically added as parameters to the application path to identify the files to diff. When diffing two files, %1 is the server file and %2 is the file to compare it to. If the selected application supports displaying alternate file names, you can also use %4 and %5 variables with the appropriate options. These variables are replaced with a description that includes the repository path, filename, branch, and version number for Surround SCM files, or the full file path for local files. %4 is a description of the server file (%1) and %5 is a description of the file to compare it to (%2). For example, "C:\Program Files\BeyondCompare\bcomp.exe" "%1" "%2" /Title1="%4" /Title2="%5". You may need to change the parameters or add different ones for the diff application to work correctly. See the diff application help for information about the command line requirements for integrating with source control applications.

Merge application options

Select a Two-way merge with option to specify the utility or application to use to merge two versions of files with the specified file extension.

Option	Uses:
Integrated Guiffy	Guiffy to merge two text files. See the Guiffy help for more information.
Microsoft Word	Word’s compare/merge utility. (Windows only)
Selected application	An application you select. Click Browse to select the application. %1 and %2 variables are automatically added as parameters to the application path to identify the files to merge. When merging files, %1 is the server file to merge from and %2 is the file to merge to. If the selected application supports displaying alternate file names, you can also use %4 and %5 variables with the appropriate options. These variables are replaced with a description that includes the repository path, filename, branch, and version number for Surround SCM files, or the full file path for local files. %4 is a description of the file to merge from (%1) and %5 is a description of the file to merge to (%2). You may need to change the parameters or add different ones for the merge application to work correctly. See the merge application help for information about the command line requirements for integrating with source control applications.

You can also select a Three-way merge with option to specify the utility or application to use to perform three-way merges. Three-way merges compare two updated versions against a common ancestor version to merge file contents.

If you browse to select an application, %1, %2, and %3 variables are automatically added as parameters to the application path to identify the files to merge. %3 is the common ancestor file. If the application supports displaying alternate file names, you can also use the %6 variable with the appropriate option to display a description of the ancestor file (%3). For example, "C:\Program Files\Perforce\P4Merge\P4Merge.exe" -nl "%4" -nb "%6" "%3" "%1" "%2".

6. Click OK to save the changes.