2007-11-15 diff tools

Previously, I've written about the diff tool meld, a very nice diff tool.

However, meld requires a graphical environment and this isn't always available. Vim however, is pretty much always available and has a diff tool built-in.

Just start vim as follows:

  $ vimdiff file1 file2

Screenshot:

vimdiff2.png

Visually it's pretty self-explanatory. Red parts are not in the other file, blue ones are empty parts where the other file has a red part. What you probably want to know, is how to quickly shift differences between the files.

dp The difference is pushed to other file. This is valid when the cursor is on a red part.
do difference is obtained from another file. Use in a blue part.

There are many options, check out the vim documentation on diff mode.