Setup p4merge as a visual diff and merge tool for git

p4merge4git.md

Download and install p4merge

• Download the perforce visual tool suite from here: http://www.perforce.com/perforce/downloads/index.html
• Copy only the p4merge.app file into your /Applications/ directory

Setup p4merge as a visual mergetool

$ git config --global merge.tool p4mergetool
$ git config --global mergetool.p4mergetool.cmd \
"/Applications/p4merge.app/Contents/Resources/launchp4merge \$PWD/\$BASE \$PWD/\$REMOTE \$PWD/\$LOCAL \$PWD/\$MERGED"
$ git config --global mergetool.p4mergetool.trustExitCode false
$ git config --global mergetool.keepBackup false

Setup p4merge as a visual diff tool

$ git config --global diff.tool p4mergetool
$ git config --global difftool.p4mergetool.cmd \
"/Applications/p4merge.app/Contents/Resources/launchp4merge \$LOCAL \$REMOTE"

Using p4merge to resolve conflicts

When you run into a conflict when merging simply run:

$ git mergetool

• You will be prompted to run "p4mergetool", hit enter and the visual merge editor will launch.
• Using the merge tool you can resolve the conflict and then save the file.
• After you exit the merge tool take a look back at your terminal. You will be asked if the merge was successful, choose yes if all is well or no if you need to start over.
• This prompting is happening because the "trustExitCode" option is turned off. Personally I always like to be asked, but you can have git just trust the exit code from the merge tool.

Still works perfectly in 2023. macOS Ventura