Using WinMerge as the git Diff/Merge Tool on Windows 64bit

.gitconfig

[mergetool]
    prompt = false
    keepBackup = false
    keepTemporaries = false

[merge]
    tool = winmerge

[mergetool "winmerge"]
    name = WinMerge
    trustExitCode = true
    cmd = "/c/Program\\ Files\\ \\(x86\\)/WinMerge/WinMergeU.exe" -u -e -dl \"Local\" -dr \"Remote\" $LOCAL $REMOTE $MERGED

[diff]
    tool = winmerge

[difftool "winmerge"]
    name = WinMerge
    trustExitCode = true
    cmd = "/c/Program\\ Files\\ \\(x86\\)/WinMerge/WinMergeU.exe" -u -e $LOCAL $REMOTE

Thanks!

Thanks!

Spasibo!

Thanks! It worked now!

I see a multitude of posts on stackoverflow describing how to use WinMerge as difftool. When a file is created or deleted WinMerge tries to access \\.\nul.
Does your solution address/handle that issue?

Works for me, too. Thank you very much!

Very useful, thank you

you should use

git difftool

NOT git diff

this takes me quite a while

I made this change in the .gitconfig. Now how do I specify the files for comparison once in Git Bash

Awesome

Has anyone had problems with this configuration recently on Windows 10 Visual Studio 2017? I am getting this on the output; "Failed to start the configured compare tool. Using the default compare tool instead."

Nice One!

Thanks

i'm getting the nul path error too

Tbd19 I had the same problem. This is what i did.
git difftool --tool-help

It should tell you what the available diff tools are.
I did:
git config diff.tool winmerge

Very helpfull. Thanks!

Thank you man!! 👏 🎉

Thank you a lot!

Saved me a lot of time, thanks.

Thanks

WinMerge was supposed to be a two-way diff ( pending WinMerge3 ) and not a three-way diff as git require. is that updated to 2.16 ( 3 way ) ?

Great

This worked for me to test for empty file and fix the \nul\ problem

cmd = [[ $LOCAL != "/dev/null" ]] && "c:/Program\\ Files/WinMerge/WinMergeU.exe" -u -e $LOCAL $REMOTE

Thanks to the author, but I suggest this set of options for mergetool/cmd:
-u -e -fm -wl -dl "Local" -wr -dr "Remote" $LOCAL $MERGED $REMOTE
This way MERGED file is in the middle pane, so you can apply changes directly from LOCAL or REMOTE. Additionally, LOCAL and REMOTE are marked "read only"

I tried the diff settings above, but they didn't work for me. It was the path to winmerge that was not right syntactically. After trying a dozen combinations or so, I finally landed on one that worked.

I'm sure there is a version of the Windows long file name form that works, but I have stopped searching now. PROGRA~1 is the short DOS 8.3 folder name for the "Program Files (x86)" folder where my winmerge is located.

[diff]
    tool = winmerge

[difftool "winmerge"]
    name = WinMerge
    trustExitCode = true
    cmd = /c/PROGRA~2/WinMerge/WinMergeU.exe -u -e $LOCAL $REMOTE

I also tried just using tool=winmerge since that is supposed to be built-in, but it didn't work.

Tip: running this command would sometimes help me know if my path was not formatted correctly.
git difftool --tool-help

Me:

Windows 8
git version 2.21.0.windows.1

u r da man !!!! seems like i needed a diff.tool (vs difftool) entry to get this to work, though.

Warning: This is right for diffs, but this will burn you if you use it for merges! I used this and had to redo my merge changes.

Use mrsteklo's version of the options above, or alternatively:

cmd = "/c/Program\\ Files\\ \\(x86\\)/WinMerge/WinMergeU.exe" -u -e -wl -wr $LOCAL $BASE $REMOTE -o $MERGED

VS2019 Enterprise 16.9.4
Winmerge 2.16.8.0 x86

I could only get it to work like this:
[difftool "winmerge"]
name = WinMerge
trustExitCode = true
cmd = \"C:\\Program Files (x86)\\WinMerge\\WinMergeU.exe\" -u -e \"$LOCAL\" \"$REMOTE\"

Thanks a lot CAPeddle !!
It's the only one working with Visual Studio 2019 and my winmerge 2.16.14.0

Additional thing to check: file MySolution.git\config (yes, the file name is "config" without extension):
Verify if you have:
[diff]
tool = winmerge

You can modify it with the following command (Visual studio Menu "Git"\Open in Command Prompt":
git config diff.tool winmerge

Neither cmd = "C:\Program Files (x86)\WinMerge\WinMergeU.exe" nor
cmd = "/c/Program\ Files\ \(x86\)/WinMerge/WinMergeU.exe" worked for me.
It always show Visual Studio Diff tool and open in visual studio itself?