difftools and FileMerge.app

[Jean-François Veillette]

> I'll take a look at adding that, but it certainly isn't a behavior  
> that I'd
> want to have by default.  With a tool that does recursive tree  
> diffs, that
> temporary copy could be quite large.

Yes, cleaning after itself was a great idea.  Sad that opendiff  
doesn't work in that model.

> Would I be correct in assuming that FileMerge.app does support  
> recursive diffs?

Correct, it does.
While you're at it ...
- if you can add 3-way merge support, that would be very great (using  
the -ancestor flag) !
- use the «-merge fileA » flag to simplify merge actions.

Here is the man page :

opendiff(1)               BSD General Commands Manual               
opendiff(1)

NAME
      opendiff -- Use FileMerge to graphically compare or merge file  
or direc-
      tories

SYNOPSIS
      opendiff file1 file2 [-ancestor ancestorFile] [-merge mergeFile]
      opendiff dir1 dir2 [-ancestor ancestorDirectory] [-merge  
mergeDirectory]

DESCRIPTION
      opendiff is a command line utility that provides a convenient  
way to
      launch the FileMerge application from Terminal to graphically  
compare
      files or directories.  If FileMerge is already running,  
opendiff will
      connect to that running instance for the new comparison.   
opendiff exits
      immediately after the comparison request has been sent to  
FileMerge.

      opendiff and FileMerge can be used to compare two files file1  
and file2
      or to compare two directories dir1 and dir2.

      If the -ancestor flag is given, FileMerge will compare the two  
files or
      directories to a common ancestor.  This is useful if two people  
indepen-
      dently modify copies of a single original file or directory.

      FileMerge lets you merge two files or directories together to  
create a
      third file or directory.  To see the contents of a merged file,  
drag the
      splitter bar at the bottom of FileMerge's file comparison  
window.  The
      contents of the merged file can be directly edited within  
FileMerge.
      After editing, the merged file can be saved to the file (or  
into the
      directory) specified with the Fl merge flag.  If a destination  
is not
      specified with the -merge flag, FileMerge will ask for a  
destination file
      or directory when you try to save a merged file.

      For further information, please consult the Help information  
available
      from the FileMerge application.

FILES
      /Developer/Applications/Utilities/FileMerge.app

      opendiff and FileMerge are installed as part of the Mac OS X  
Developer
      Tools.

SEE ALSO
      diff(1), diff3(1), cmp(1)

Mac OS                          August 3,  
2004                          Mac OS


Ideally I would know python enough so that I could add such support  
myself, but I just read the first few lines of a python tutorial last  
weekend, that's the extends of my python knowledge.  I might give it  
a try eventually, finish the tutorial and dive into the plugin (I  
can't promise anything just yet).

Thanks a lot for your support !

- jfv