compare files software on linux

[lanchen]

Hi all,

could you please recommend a good software to compare two files of source codes? I prefer graphical one.

Many thanks,

Lan

[frodon]

i use tkdiff.

[joselin]

You can use meld (http://meld.sourceforge.net/)

Regards

[lanchen]

tkdiff is working. thx

[kperkins]

Kompare
Why doesn't gnome have a diff gui?

[ardchoille]

open a terminal and do:


diff /path/to/file-one /path/to/file-two


diff will spit out the differences, or diff will return nothing if there are no differences.

[frodon]

Kompare
Why doesn't gnome have a diff gui?it has one, but i don't rmember the name ... maybe gdiff.

[kperkins]

it has one, but i don't rmember the name ... maybe gdiff.
Nope gdiffis an emacs macro. I did find meld, but the version in breezy won't open any files for me. It freezes at the open file dialog when browsing. (with a glibc error. Might need a newer version--the newest is 1.1.2 and the one in breezy is 1.0.0. I may try upgrading it later--looks like they use the Debian package without any changes.

[purpleturtle]

Winmerge on Windows in the best differ I've ever used (and it's free..) I'd be happy if I could find one as good on Linux (I wonder if it works under Wine....? ) although to be fair I haven't spent much time looking yet...

[frodon]

all of them are as good as winmerge i think, try them and see ;)

[Greg2]

I did find meld, but the version in breezy won't open any files for me. It freezes at the open file dialog when browsing. (with a glibc error. Might need a newer version--the newest is 1.1.2 and the one in breezy is 1.0.0. I may try upgrading it later--looks like they use the Debian package without any changes.
I’ve been using meld 1.0.0-1 from the breezy-backports without any problems.

[dpm]

I had been using KDiff3 and WinMerge in Windows. As a matter of personal taste, I preferred KDiff3 (faster and more flexible), even though I found the Winmerge GUI better.

When I switched to Linux, I found I could still use KDiff3, or even better, Meld.

I remember having a couple of problems with version 1.0.0, but those have since long been corrected by the 1.1.2 version available from the backport repositories.

A *very* nice thing that Meld has got (apart from the nice GUI and GNOME integration) is syntax highlighting. It is also very easy to set it up to ignore CVS keywords, comments, etc.

The only thing in which KDiff3 might be superior is in the merging capabilities.

I'd just give all options a try and use the one you're feeling more comfortable with.

[entangled]

gvim also gives a good view of diffs, when you open a second file with the 'Split Diffs with ...' option.
Has the advantage of using syntax highlighting.
Has the disadvantage (AFAIK) that it is always case-sensitive.

[joselin]

Nope gdiffis an emacs macro. I did find meld, but the version in breezy won't open any files for me. It freezes at the open file dialog when browsing. (with a glibc error. Might need a newer version--the newest is 1.1.2 and the one in breezy is 1.0.0. I may try upgrading it later--looks like they use the Debian package without any changes.

I have the same problem too. What i do is, in the choosen file dialog i select file or folder comparison and the press ok. After that, you can change both paths or files in the main screen.

Regards.

[kperkins]

I did download meld 1.1.2 (debian) and installed it, and it works great. Sorry I didn't get back before this, but I forgot. :(

[dpm]

I have the same problem too. What i do is, in the choosen file dialog i select file or folder comparison and the press ok. After that, you can change both paths or files in the main screen.

Regards.

As I said on my last post, Meld 1.1.2 is available in the breezy-backports repositories. The problem you're referring to with your workaround is fixed on that version.

You may want to give it a try.

BTW, I did not know you could view diffs with gvim, I'll give it a go tomorrow...

Cheers.

[joselin]

I just download from the backports and works fine.

Thanks.

[schickm]

Yep, meld hands down! I can't speak for it's merging capabilities, but it's display is far superior to tkdiff.

[kaligus]

I tried meld for two weeks... winmerge still wins (in wine) sadly.

The ability to save "projects" and remerge them tomorrow or next week without remembering the directories to find everything in etc. is most awesome...

If someone knows software that hits the best of meld *AND* winmerge that is native I would love to hear about it

[kknd]

you Can Use Meld (http://meld.sourceforge.net/)

Regards

+1

[orange_roughy]

None of the suggestions in this thread can BOTH:

* ignore whitespace
* compare all files in a two directories (i.e., specify two directories for diffing instead of two files)

As of 16-08-2009, Meld can do the latter but not the former. All other suggestions can't do either of these. WinMerge does both. Do I really have to boot up Windows for advanced GUI diffing?

[Can+~]

None of the suggestions in this thread can BOTH:

* ignore whitespace
* compare all files in a two directories (i.e., specify two directories for diffing instead of two files)

As of 16-08-2009, Meld can do the latter but not the former. All other suggestions can't do either of these. WinMerge does both. Do I really have to boot up Windows for advanced GUI diffing?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/CanXp/screenshot1-4.png

And if you still have trouble, you can write your own regular expression (http://docs.python.org/library/re.html).

[rduke15]

Indeed, I found Meld to be the best in Linux, and as Can+ pointed out, it certainly can diff directories and ignore whitespace (and comments, or whatever you can find a regexp for)

One thing for which I had to install WinMerge in my XP VM today is the ability to save a clear html report of differences. Unfortunately, Meld cannot export. And raw diff output is unreadable for normal people. So without WinMerge, I would have had to produce a readable file with formatting and highlighting myself.

PS: I found that WinMerge Portable (http://portableapps.com/apps/utilities/winmerge_portable) seems to work fine under Wine, so for these special cases, you may not even need a Windows VM.

[zippo_yp]

Indeed, I found Meld to be the best in Linux, and as Can+ pointed out, it certainly can diff directories and ignore whitespace (and comments, or whatever you can find a regexp for)

One thing for which I had to install WinMerge in my XP VM today is the ability to save a clear html report of differences. Unfortunately, Meld cannot export. And raw diff output is unreadable for normal people. So without WinMerge, I would have had to produce a readable file with formatting and highlighting myself.

PS: I found that WinMerge Portable (http://portableapps.com/apps/utilities/winmerge_portable) seems to work fine under Wine, so for these special cases, you may not even need a Windows VM.


I used to use beyond compare in windows, and when I switch to ubuntu, I've been using it, it is also quite good, it also works fine with wine!

I have to use bitwise tunnelier as a ftp to sftp bridge, it also work fine in wine, but a bit slow, so if there's any nicer way which build a bridge between ftp and sftp in Linux? Guys...

[Hellkeepa]

HELLo!

A bit off topic, but why not just use "ssh" for it?

Happy codin'!

[drevicko]

Indeed, I found Meld to be the best in Linux, and as Can+ pointed out, it certainly can diff directories and ignore whitespace (and comments, or whatever you can find a regexp for)

One thing for which I had to install WinMerge in my XP VM today is the ability to save a clear html report of differences. Unfortunately, Meld cannot export. And raw diff output is unreadable for normal people. So without WinMerge, I would have had to produce a readable file with formatting and highlighting myself.

PS: I found that WinMerge Portable (http://portableapps.com/apps/utilities/winmerge_portable) seems to work fine under Wine, so for these special cases, you may not even need a Windows VM.

Another limitation of Meld I've found is it's (apparent, and I did look around..) inability to diff folders on fat32 partitions without comparing contents. With lots of big files (like music), this is problematic, to say the least! (though it didn't break anything permanently :o ). With winmerge, you tell it to just compare file sizes or dates or whatever.

I tried midnight commander - has a folder compare thingy, but it didn't seem to do anything. Didn't look too hard as to why.

Meld is nice though. For souce code management especially, with it's integrated version control diffing.

[hil]

I looked at meld's screenshot. It was impressive. I used diffuse (http://diffuse.sourceforge.net/) and found it was superior than windiff. It can compared even words or characters on a line. Has anyone talked about diffuse in the thread or used it?

[sitex]

Hi all, :KS

There is a free and open source software for this job called Melt Diff Viewer

Meld is a tool which allows the user to see the changes in, and merge between, either two files, two directories, or two files with a common ancestor.

you can install it with the terminal command : sudo apt-get install meld

and also you can install with Ubuntu Software Center by searching for "meld"

click here see how it install on ubuntu with more details and screen shots (http://solutionz.yolasite.com/linux.php)

[Hellkeepa]

HELLo!

sitex: Yeah... That would be what was stated in the second reply (http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=663859&postcount=3) to this thread, and supported many times over in latter responses.

Don't misunderstand me: I love Meld as well. However, reading the thread before answering is generally looked upon as common courtesy. Plus, it's also a smart thing for do to for ones own sake too, as there could be lots of useful information one didn't know about on it.

Happy codin'!

[James78]

None of the suggestions in this thread can BOTH:

* ignore whitespace
* compare all files in a two directories (i.e., specify two directories for diffing instead of two files)

As of 16-08-2009, Meld can do the latter but not the former. All other suggestions can't do either of these. WinMerge does both. Do I really have to boot up Windows for advanced GUI diffing?
I use Kompare, and I don't know about the whitespace, but you can compare all files in a directory, even recursively. I think it might ignore whitespace too though.