I use meld on Linux and I am able to compare two pieces of text without having to save them in files. Is there something similar for Mac and Windows?
Asad Iqbal
Asad IqbalAsad Iqbal
closed as off topic by martin clayton, ollo, Mario Sannum, robbrit, Laurent EtiembleApr 4 '13 at 21:47
Questions on Stack Overflow are expected to relate to programming within the scope defined by the community. Consider editing the question or leaving comments for improvement if you believe the question can be reworded to fit within the scope. Read more about reopening questions here. If this question can be reworded to fit the rules in the help center, please edit the question.
What are people using as a visual diff tool on OS X? Since my move to the Mac just over 1 year ago this is the one tool I have been unable to replace.
3 Answers
NotePad++ with the Compare plugin on Windows:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/npp-compare/
http://sourceforge.net/projects/npp-compare/
AnneAnne
TextWrangler for OS X does a nice diff of either files on disk or documents being edited.
That would allow you to make two empty docs, paste your text into each of them and run the diff.
MonoloMonolo
The meld tool has been ported to Mac OS X and is available via 'fink'.
You will need to install fink first however, and I believe you can get started here.
Dave NewmanDave Newman
Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged macosdiff or ask your own question.
This article compares computer software tools that compare files, and in many cases directories or folders, whether it is their main purpose or as part of more general file management.
General[edit]
Basic general information about file comparison software.
Name | Creator | FOSS | Free | First public release date | Year of latest stable version | Windows | Macintosh | Linux | Other platforms | Max Supported File Size |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Beyond Compare | Scooter Software[1] | No; Proprietary | No | 1996 | 2019-05-28 (v4.2.10) | Yes | Yes | Yes | > 2GB (64 bits) | |
Compare++ | Coode Software[2] | No; Proprietary | No | 2010 | 2014-11-12 (2.21.2.0) | Yes[3] | No | No | ||
diff, diff3 | AT&T | Yes; BSD 3-clause, BSD 4-clause, CDDL, GPL, Proprietary | Yes | 1974 | Yes | Yes (Mac OS X) | Yes | ported to most platforms as part of SCCS | > 2GB but less than 64 bits | |
Eclipse (compare) | Yes; Eclipse Public License | Yes | 2004-07-21 | 2016-09-28 (4.6.1 (Neon.1)) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Anything with Java | ||
Ediff | Michael Kifer[4] | Yes; GPL | Yes | 1994 | 2.81.4 | Yes[5] | Yes (Mac OS X) | Yes | Anything with Emacs and diff | |
ExamDiff Pro | PrestoSoft[6] | No; Proprietary | No | 1998 | 2017-09-23 (v 9.0.1.6) | Yes (Win98 and up) | No | No | ||
Far Manager (compare) | Eugene Roshal (original); FAR Group | Yes; Revised BSD license | Yes | 1996 | 2017-08-07 (v3.0 build 5000) | Yes | No | No | ||
fc | Microsoft[7] | No; Proprietary | Yes; Part of OS | 1987 | Yes (DOS) | No | No | |||
FileMerge (aka opendiff) | Apple Inc. | No; Proprietary | Yes; (part of Apple Developer Tools) | 1993 (part of NEXTSTEP 3.2[8]) | 2014 (v2.8) | No | Yes (Mac OS X) | No | ||
Guiffy SureMerge | Guiffy Software[9] | No; Proprietary | No | 2000 | 2019-05-07 (v11.10) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Anything with Java | > 2GB |
IntelliJ IDEA (compare) | JetBrains[10] | No; Proprietary | No | 2001 | 2016-11-22 (2016.3) | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
jEdit JDiff plugin | Various[11] | Yes; GPL | Yes | 1998 | 2012-10-04 (3.3.0) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Anything with Java | |
Kompare | Otto Bruggeman[12] | Yes; GPLv2+ | Yes | Yes [13] | Yes (Mac OS X) | Yes | ||||
Lazarus Diff | Lazarus (software) | Yes; GPL | Yes | 2000 | 2016-11-13 (1.6.2) | Yes | Yes | Yes | FreeBSD | |
Meld | Stephen Kennedy[14] | Yes; GPLv2+ | Yes | 2002 | 2018-06-19 (v3.18.2) | Yes[15] | Yes | Yes | BSD, Solaris | |
Notepad++ (compare) | Various | Yes; GPLv3 | Yes | 2009 | 2015-01-06 (1.5.6.6) | Yes[16] | No | No | ||
Perforce P4Merge | Perforce | No; Proprietary | Yes | 2015 (2015.2) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Sun Solaris | ||
Pretty Diff | Austin Cheney[17] | Yes; MIT-compatible | Yes | 2009 | 2016-11-11 (2.1.14) | Yes (Web) | Yes (Web) | Yes (Web) | Node.js | |
Tkdiff | Tkdiff[18] | Yes; GPLv2+ | Yes | 2003 (or before) | 2011-11-27 (v4.2) | Yes (Tcl) | Yes (Tcl) | Yes (Tcl) | Anything with Tcl | |
Total Commander (compare) | Christian Ghisler[19] | No; Proprietary | No | 2016-11-23 (v9.00) | Yes | No | No | |||
twdiff (TextWrangler Diff Helper) | Bare Bones Software, Inc.[20] | No; Proprietary | Yes; with TextWrangler | 2012 (1.0 (v22)) | No | Yes | No | No | ||
vimdiff | Bram Moolenaar et al. | Yes; GPL-compatible [21] | Yes | 2001 | 2016-10-03 (v8.0.0022) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Anything with vim | |
WinDiff | Microsoft[22] | No; Proprietary | Yes; Part of Platform SDK | 1992 | 2002-08-16 14:36:14 (v5.00.2195.6601) | Yes | No | No | No | |
WinMerge | Dean Grimm[23] | Yes; GPL | Yes | 1998 | 2018-11-22 (v2.18.0) | Yes (Win95 and up) | Yes (in wine[24]) | Yes (in wine[24]) | 2 GB | |
UCC | USC CSSE[25] | No; USC-CSSE Limited Public License | Yes | 2009 | 2015-12-30 (2015.12) | Yes | Yes | Yes {2.6.9} | Sun Solaris | |
Name | Creator | FOSS | Free | First public release date | Year of latest stable version | Windows | Macintosh | Linux | Other platforms | Max Supported File Size |
Compare features[edit]
Name | Show in-line changes | Directory comparison | Binary comparison | Moved lines | 3-way comparison | Merge | Structured comparison[26] | Manual compare alignment | Image Compare |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Beyond Compare | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes (Files and Folders) | Yes (Pro only) | Yes | Yes | |
Compare++ | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes (C/C++,C#,Java,Javascript,CSS3) | ||||
diff | No | Yes | partly | No | No | No | |||
diff3 | No | No | Yes (non-optional) | ||||||
Eclipse (compare) | Yes | No (only ancestor) | Yes | No | |||||
Ediff | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||||
ExamDiff Pro | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes[27] | Yes (ExamDiff Pro Master only)[28] | Yes | manual synchronization | ||
Far Manager (compare) | Yes (Via plugin) [29] | Yes | Yes | Yes (Via plugin) [29] | No | No | |||
fc | No | No | Yes | No | No | ||||
FileMerge (aka opendiff) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes (optional ancestor) | Yes | ||||
Guiffy SureMerge | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
IntelliJ IDEA (compare) | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||||||
jEdit JDiff plugin | Yes | No | Yes | ||||||
Kompare | Yes | No | No | Yes | |||||
Lazarus Diff | |||||||||
Meld | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | line alignment, unlink scroll | ||
Notepad++ (compare) | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | ||
Perforce P4Merge | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | |||
Pretty Diff | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | |
Tkdiff | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | |||
Total Commander (compare) | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | resync comparison | No |
vimdiff | Yes | Yes (via DirDiff plugin) | Yes | Yes | |||||
WinDiff | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | |||
WinMerge | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | |
UCC | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | |||
Name | Show in-line changes | Directory comparison | Binary comparison | Moved lines | 3-way comparison | Merge | Structured comparison[26] | Manual compare alignment | Image compare |
API / editor features[edit]
Name | GUI | CLI | Scripting | Horizontal / Vertical | Syntax Highlighting | Reports |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Beyond Compare | Yes | Yes | Yes | Both | Yes | XML, HTML, CSV, Text, Unix Patch |
Compare++ | Yes | Yes | Both | Yes | HTML, Text(combined or side-by-side) | |
diff | No | Yes | Horizontal | Yes pipe to diff-highlight[30] | ||
diff3 | No | Yes | Horizontal | |||
Eclipse (compare) | Yes | Vertical | Yes | |||
Ediff | Yes | Yes | elisp | Both | Yes | |
ExamDiff Pro | Yes | Yes | optional | Yes | UNIX, HTML, Diff | |
Far Manager (compare) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | |
fc | No | Yes | Horizontal | |||
FileMerge (aka opendiff) | Yes | Yes | Vertical | Yes | No | |
Guiffy SureMerge | Yes | Yes | Java API | Both | Yes | HTML, Text, Unix Patch |
IntelliJ IDEA (compare) | Yes | Vertical | Yes | |||
jEdit JDiff plugin | Yes | Both | Yes | |||
Kompare | Yes | Vertical | No | |||
Lazarus Diff | Yes | Yes | ||||
Meld | Yes | No | Horizontal | Yes | No | |
Notepad++ (compare) | Yes | Yes | Both | Yes | No | |
Perforce P4Merge | Yes | Yes | Vertical | No | No | |
Pretty Diff | Yes | Yes | JavaScript | Both | Yes | XHTML |
Tkdiff | Yes | |||||
Total Commander (compare) | Yes | Both | No | No | ||
vimdiff | Yes | Yes | vim script | Both | Yes | HTML |
WinDiff | Yes | Yes | Horizontal | No | Text | |
WinMerge | Yes | Yes | Vertical | Yes | CSV, Tab-delimited, HTML, XML | |
UCC | Yes | Yes | Vertical | Yes | Text, CSV | |
Name | GUI | CLI | Scripting | Horizontal / Vertical | Syntax Highlighting | Reports |
Other features[edit]
Some other features which did not fit in previous table
Name | ZIP support | FTP support | SFTP support | Version Control browsing | Patch creation | Patch application | Patch preview | Unicode support | XML-aware |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Beyond Compare | Yes | Yes | Yes | SVN | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
Compare++ | SVN, CVS, Git, Microsoft TFS, Perforce, VSS using command line | Yes | |||||||
diff | No | No | No | Yes | Yes with patch | Yes with patch | No | No | |
diff3 | No | No | No | ||||||
Eclipse (compare) | Yes CVS, Subversion, Git, Mercurial, Baazar | Yes | |||||||
Ediff | Yes | Yes | RCS, CVS, SVN, Mercurial, git (anything supported by Emacs' VC-mode)[31] | Yes | Yes | Yes | |||
ExamDiff Pro | Yes[32] | Yes[33] | normal diff only | Yes | |||||
Far Manager (compare) | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | |
fc | No | No | No | ||||||
FileMerge (aka opendiff) | No | supported by OS | No | No | No | ||||
Guiffy SureMerge | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes[34] | ||||
IntelliJ IDEA (compare) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |||
jEdit JDiff plugin | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
Kompare | Yes | ||||||||
Lazarus Diff | |||||||||
Meld | CVS, Subversion, Git, Mercurial, Baazar | Yes | Yes | ||||||
Notepad++ (compare) | No | Yes[35] | Git, Subversion (compare against base) | No | No | No | Yes | No | |
Perforce P4Merge | No | Yes | |||||||
Pretty Diff | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes |
Tkdiff | No | No | CVS, RCS, Subversion | No | No | No | No | No | |
Total Commander (compare) | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes | No |
vimdiff | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |||||
WinDiff | No | No | No | No | |||||
WinMerge | Yes | No | Mercurial,[36] Subversion,[37] Visual Source Safe, Rational ClearCase[38] | Yes | Yes | ||||
UCC | Yes | No | Yes | ||||||
Name | ZIP support | FTP support | SFTP support | Version Control browsing | Patch creation | Patch application | Patch preview | Unicode support | XML-aware |
Aspects[edit]
What aspects can be / are compared?
Name | Filename casing | CRC | Filedate | Daylight saving | Character casing |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Beyond Compare | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Compare++ | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
diff | Yes | No | No | No | Optional |
diff3 | |||||
Eclipse (compare) | |||||
Ediff | |||||
ExamDiff Pro | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Far Manager (compare) | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes |
fc | No | Optional | |||
FileMerge (aka opendiff) | No | No | No | Optional | |
Guiffy SureMerge | filesystem dependent | Yes | Yes | ||
IntelliJ IDEA (compare) | |||||
jEdit JDiff plugin | |||||
Kompare | Yes | ||||
Lazarus Diff | |||||
Meld | |||||
Notepad++ (compare) | No | No | No | Yes | |
Perforce P4Merge | N/A | No | No | No | Yes |
Pretty Diff | N/A | No | No | No | Optional |
Tkdiff | |||||
Total Commander (compare) | Optional | Yes (in synchronize only) | Optional | ||
vimdiff | No | No | No | No | Yes |
WinDiff | No | No | when different | Yes | Optional |
WinMerge | No | No | Optional | Optional | |
UCC | No | No | Yes | No | |
Name | Filename casing | CRC | Filedate | Daylight saving | Character casing |
Timezone effects[edit]
When files are transferred across time zones and between Microsoft FAT and NTFSfile systems, the timestamp displayed by the same file may change, so that identical files with different storage histories are deemed different by a comparer that requires the timestamps to match. The difference is an exact number of quarters of an hour up to 95 (same minutes modulo 15 and seconds) if the file was transported across zones; there is also a one-hour difference within a single zone caused by the transition between standard time and daylight saving time (DST). Some, but not all, file comparison and synchronisation software can be configured to ignore the DST and time-zone differences.[39] Software known to have daylight-saving compensation is marked in the Aspects table.
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^Scooter Software
- ^Coode Software
- ^Compare++ Operating system information
- ^Michael Kifer
- ^Ediff requires a diff utility to function. As of December 2017, diff is not bundled with Emacs or Windows, so use of Ediff in a Windows environment requires installation of both Emacs and a diff implementation like GNU diff.
- ^PrestoSoft
- ^Microsoft
- ^NeXT Product Marketing (Fall 1993). 'What's New in Release 3.2?'. NEXTSTEP In Focus. NeXT Computer, Inc. 3 (4). Retrieved 18 July 2014.
- ^Guiffy Software
- ^JetBrains
- ^jedit.org
- ^Otto Bruggeman
- ^Installing Kompare in Windows
- ^Stephen Kennedy
- ^Meld/Windows
- ^Notepad++ compare plugin
- ^Pretty Diff
- ^tkdiff
- ^Christian Ghisler
- ^Bare Bones Software, Inc.
- ^vim license
- ^Microsoft
- ^Dean Grimm
- ^ abWinMerge in Wine
- ^USC CSSE
- ^ abCompare logical sections (class, methods)
- ^Examdiff
- ^Examdiff
- ^ abVisual Rename
- ^https://github.com/git/git/tree/master/contrib/diff-highlight
- ^gnu.org Support-for-Version-Control
- ^through a plug-in
- ^through a plug-in
- ^UTF8, UTF16, MBCS, SJIS, over 150 file encoding and character set formats
- ^Notepad++ FTP plugin
- ^'tortoisehg / stable / wiki / FAQ —'. Bitbucket.org. Retrieved 2010-07-06.
- ^'Using WinMerge with other tools – WinMerge 2.12 Manual'. Winmerge.org. Retrieved 2010-07-06.
- ^'About'. WinMerge. Retrieved 2010-07-06.
- ^Example: 'Beyond Compare' help describes a user setting 'timezone differences – ignores timestamp differences that are multiples of an exact hour.'
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Comparison_of_file_comparison_tools&oldid=899255861'