Git Diff with Beyond Compare

Question

I have succeeded in getting git to start Beyond Compare 3 as a diff tool however  when I do a diff  the file I am comparing against is not being loaded   Only the latest version of the file is loaded and nothing else  so there is nothing in the right pane of Beyond Compare   I am running git 1 6 3 1 with Cygwin with Beyond Compare 3   I have set up beyond compare as they suggest in the support part of their website with a script like such        bin sh     diff is called by git with 7 parameters      path old-file old-hex old-mode new-file new-hex new-mode    path to bc3 executable    2    5    cat   Has anyone else encountered this problem and know a solution to this     Edit  I have followed the suggestions by VonC but I am still having exactly the same problem as before  I am kinda new to Git so perhaps I am not using the diff correctly     For example  I am trying to see the diff on a file with a command like such      git diff main css  Beyond Compare will then open and only display my current main css in the left pane  there is nothing in the right pane   I would like the see my current main css in the left pane compared to the HEAD  basically what I have last committed     My git-diff-wrapper sh looks like this        bin sh     diff is called by git with 7 parameters      path old-file old-hex old-mode new-file new-hex new-mode    c  Program Files Beyond Compare 3 BCompare exe    2    5    cat   My git config looks like this for Diff      diff    external   c  cygwin bin git-diff-wrapper sh

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Here is my config file  It took some wrestling but now it is working  I am using windows server  msysgit and beyond compare 3  apparently an x86 version   Youll notice that I dont need to specify any arguments  and I use  path  instead of  cmd     user          name   PeteW         email   petew petew com  diff          tool   bc3  difftool          prompt   false  difftool  bc3           path    c Program Files  x86  Beyond Compare 3 BComp exe  merge          tool   bc3  mergetool          prompt   false         keepBackup   false  mergetool  bc3           path    c Program Files  x86  Beyond Compare 3 BComp exe         trustExitCode   true  alias          dt   difftool         mt   mergetool

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Update for BC4 64bit   This works for Git for Windows v 2 16 2 and Beyond Compare 4 - v 4 2 4  64bit Edition   I manually edited the  gitconfig file located in my user root  C  Users MyUserName  and replaced the diff difftool and merge mergetool tags with   diff    tool   bc  difftool  bc     path    C  Program Files Beyond Compare 4 BComp exe   difftool  bc     cmd     C  Program Files Beyond Compare 4 BComp exe      LOCAL      REMOTE    difftool    prompt   false  merge    tool   bc  mergetool  bc     path    C  Program Files Beyond Compare 4 BComp exe   mergetool  bc     cmd     C  Program Files Beyond Compare 4 BComp exe      REMOTE      LOCAL      BASE      MERGED

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The Beyond Compare support page is a bit brief   Check my diff external answer for more  regarding the exact syntax   Extract     git config --global diff external  lt path to wrapper script gt       at the command prompt  replacing with the path to  git-diff-wrapper sh   so your    gitconfig contains   -- gt 8- snip --  diff      external    lt path to wrapper script gt  --8 lt - snap --      Be sure to use the correct syntax to specify the paths to the wrapper script and diff tool  i e  use forward slashed instead of backslashes  In my case  I have    diff      external   c  Documents and Settings sschuber git-diff-wrapper sh      in  gitconfig and    d  Program Files Beyond Compare 3 BCompare exe    2    5    cat      in the wrapper script      Note  you can also use git difftool

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http   rubenlaguna com wp 2010 08 05 visual-difftool-cygwin-git  has a solution that I adopted to work for BeyondCompare  http   gist github com 564573

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For whatever reason  for me  the tmp file created by git diff was being deleted before it opened in beyond compare  I had to copy it out to another location first   cp -r  2   cygdrive c temp 2  cygstart  cygdrive c Program  Files    x86   Beyond  Compare  3 BCompare exe  C  temp 2    5

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Run these commands for Beyond Compare 3 if the BCompare exe path is different in your system  please replace it according to yours    git config --global diff tool bc3 git config --global difftool bc3 cmd    c  program files  x86  beyond compare 3 BCompare exe      LOCAL      REMOTE    git config --global difftool prompt false   Then use git difftool

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For MAC after doing lot of research it worked for me    1  Install the beyond compare and this will be installed in below location      Applications Beyond  Compare app Contents MacOS bcomp   Please follow these steps to make bc as diff merge tool in git http   www scootersoftware com support php zz kb mac

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it looks like BC3 only supports 3 way merge for PRO Edition  http   www scootersoftware com moreinfo php zz kb editions

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Windows 10  Git v2 13 2  My  gitconfig  Remember to add escape character for     and        diff      tool   bc4  difftool      prompt   false  difftool  bc4       cmd     C   Program Files  Beyond Compare 4  BCompare exe      LOCAL      REMOTE    merge      tool   bc4  mergetool  bc4       path   C   Program Files  Beyond Compare 4  BCompare exe   You may reference setting up beyond compare as difftool for using git commands to config it

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Run these commands for Beyond Compare 2   git config --global diff tool bc2 git config --global difftool bc2 cmd    c  program files  x86  beyond compare 2 bc2 exe      LOCAL      REMOTE    git config --global difftool prompt false   Run these commands for Beyond Compare 3   git config --global diff tool bc3 git config --global difftool bc3 cmd    c  program files  x86  beyond compare 3 bcomp exe      LOCAL      REMOTE    git config --global difftool prompt false   Then use git difftool

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Please notice you make a wrong path of  2  because you are under Cygwin but BC3 not  so you should specify a full path for it  such as  d  cygwin 2   Please refer my git-diff-wrapper sh here     cat   git-diff-wrapper sh    bin sh echo  2 echo  5  cygdrive c Program  Files    x86   Beyond  Compare  3 BCompare exe  d  programs cygwin 2    5    Good luck

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If you are running windows 7  professional  and Git for Windows  v 2 15 or above   you can simply run below command to find out what are different diff tools supported by your Git for Windows  git difftool --tool-help   You will see output similar to this      git difftool --tool   may be set to one of the following                    vimdiff                   vimdiff2                   vimdiff3   it means that your git does not support can not find  beyond compare as difftool right now   In order for Git to find beyond compare as valid difftool  you should have Beyond Compare installation directory in your system path environment variable  You can check this by running bcompare from shell cmd  git bash or powershell  I am using Git Bash   If Beyond Compare does not launch  add its installation directory  in my case  C  Program Files Beyond Compare 4  to your system path variable  After this  restart your shell  Git will show Beyond Compare as possible difftool option  You can use any of below commands to launch beyond compare as difftool  for example  to compare any local file with some other branch   git difftool -t bc branchnametocomparewith -- path-to-file or  git difftool --tool bc branchnametocomparewith -- path-to-file   You can configure beyond compare as default difftool using below commands     git config --global diff tool bc   p s  keep in mind that bc in above command can be bc3 or bc based upon what Git was able to find from your path system variable

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I don t use extra wrapper  sh files  My environment is Windows XP  git 1 7 1 on cygwin  and Beyond Compare 3  Following is my  git config file    diff      tool   bc3  difftool      prompt   false  difftool  bc3        use cygpath to transform cygwin path  LOCAL  something like  tmp U5VvP1 abc  to windows path  because bc3 is a windows software     cmd     c  program files beyond compare 3 bcomp exe      cygpath -w  LOCAL     REMOTE   merge      tool   bc3  mergetool      prompt   false  mergetool  bc3        trustExitCode   true     cmd     c  program files beyond compare 3 bcomp exe     LOCAL    REMOTE    BASE    MERGED    Then  I use   git difftool to compare and   git mergetool to merge   About trustExitCode  For a custom merge command  specify whether the exit code of the merge command can be used to determine whether the merge was successful  If this is not set to true then the merge target file timestamp is checked and the merge assumed to have been successful if the file has been updated  otherwise the user is prompted to indicate the success of the merge

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For git version 2 15 1 windows 2 with BC2 exe   The config below finally works on my machine    difftool  bc2    cmd     c  program files beyond compare 2 bc2 exe     LOCAL    REMOTE

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Official documentation worked for me

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Thanks to  dahlbyk  the author of Posh-Git  for posting his config as a gist  It helped me resolve my configuration issue    diff      tool   bc3  difftool      prompt   false  difftool  bc3       cmd     c  program files  x86  beyond compare 3 bcomp exe      LOCAL      REMOTE    merge      tool   bc3  mergetool      prompt   false     keepBackup   false  mergetool  bc3       cmd     c  program files  x86  beyond compare 3 bcomp exe      LOCAL      REMOTE      BASE      MERGED       trustExitCode   true  alias      dt   difftool     mt   mergetool

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The difference is in the exe being called  set it up to call bcomp exe and it ll work fine  Configure your environment to call bcompare exe and you ll end up with the side of the comparison taken from your revision system being empty

[git] Git Diff with Beyond Compare

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