Configuring a diff-tool for Git on Windows

git merge diff

22,241

Solution 1

In your command prompt, try: git config --global diff.tool p4diff

That worked for me, using a config file set up as you had described:

[diff]  
    tool = p4merge  
[difftool "p4diff"]  
    external = '"C:/Program Files/Perforce/p4merge.exe" "$LOCAL" "$REMOTE"'

Running git difftool opened p4merge as expected.

Ref: How do I view 'git diff' output with a visual diff program?

Solution 2

I'm on WIndows 7 using MSysGit v1.8.4.

For me, the only solution was to add p4merge to the system path variable (reboot needed afterwards). Having done this, i conf'd it like this:

git config --global diff.tool p4merge
git config --global difftool.p4merge.cmd 'p4merge.exe $LOCAL $REMOTE'
git config --global difftool.prompt false

git config --global merge.tool p4merge
git config --global mergetool.p4merge.cmd 'p4merge.exe $BASE $LOCAL $REMOTE $MERGED'
git config --global mergetool.prompt false
git config --global mergetool.trustExitCode false
git config --global mergetool.keepBackup false

I recommend you stick to "git config" instead of editing the conf manually because hyphens etc sometimes are different between these methods.

Solution 3

Dan Limerick has an excellent short tutorial on setting up Perforce's p4merge on Windows:

http://danlimerick.wordpress.com/2011/06/19/git-for-window-tip-use-p4merge-as-mergetool/

Tested with Git 1.9.4 and p4merge 2014.1 on Windows 7.

Solution 4

I personally like meld better from other open source tools for just diff,

Expanding @wengeezhang answer, here is the step to configure Meld as difftool.

Add Meld.exe path("C:\Program Files (x86)\Meld") to environment path
Fire up windows command prompt
git config --global diff.tool meld
git config --global difftool.meld.cmd "meld \"$LOCAL\" \"$REMOTE\""

Bonus tip: Go to Git repo's root directory and fire up following command to see all diff side by side

git difftool --dir-diff ./

Solution 5

git config --global diff.tool p4merge
git config --global difftool.p4merge.cmd "p4merge \"$LOCAL\" \"$REMOTE\""
add p4merge.exe path("C:\Program Files\Perforce\p4merge.exe") to environment path

ps:

in step 2,you've to add \"$LOCAL\" \"$REMOTE\"(local diff remote),or p4merge won't know what to diff

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22,241

Author by

Søren Pedersen

iOS developer at Schibsted

Updated on August 01, 2022

Comments

Søren Pedersen almost 2 years
Since git diff in powershell mostly results in a unreadable amount of whitespace or strange characters, I installed Perforce P4Merge, to handle merging and diff.

However, I can't make git diff open the p4merge application to view the diff in. So far my .gitconfig looks like this:
```
[diff]
    tool = p4diff

[difftool "p4diff"]
    external = 'C:/PROGRA~1/Perforce/p4merge.exe "$LOCAL" "$REMOTE"'
    prompt = false

[merge]
    keepBackup = false
    tool = p4merge

[mergetool "p4merge"]
    cmd = "$BASE" "$LOCAL" "$REMOTE" "$MERGED"
    path = 'C:/PROGRA~1/Perforce/p4merge.exe'
    prompt = false
    keepBackup = false
    keepTemporaries = false
    trustExitCode = false
```
The paths are correct. But alas, git still attempts to present the diff in Powershell, when using git diff.

So what's the trick to make this work?
leo almost 11 years

shouldn't it be tool = p4diff? That's also what you get when you enter the command git config --global diff.tool p4diff
Nicholas Petersen over 4 years

i just got a bunch of errors when it tries to launch Meld ?
Sunil Shahu over 4 years

@NicholasPetersen What kind of errors? An error excerpt will put more light on what is the issue.