Git: How can I configure KDiff3 as a merge tool and diff tool?
These sites were very helpful, almost, mergetool and difftool. I used the global configuration, but can be used by repository without problems. You just need to execute the following commands:
git config --global merge.tool kdiff3
git config --global mergetool.kdiff3.path "C:/Program Files/KDiff3/bin/kdiff3.exe"
git config --global mergetool.kdiff3.trustExitCode false
git config --global diff.guitool kdiff3
git config --global difftool.kdiff3.path "C:/Program Files/KDiff3/bin/kdiff3.exe"
git config --global difftool.kdiff3.trustExitCode false
Note that the latest version kdiff3 moved the executable from the root of the application folder C:/Program Files/KDiff3 into the bin/ folder inside the application folder. If you're using an older version, remove "bin/" from the paths above.
The use of the trustExitCode
option depends on what you want to do when diff tool returns. From documentation:
git-difftool invokes a diff tool individually on each file. Errors reported by the diff tool are ignored by default. Use --trust-exit-code to make git-difftool exit when an invoked diff tool returns a non-zero exit code.
Just to extend the @Joseph's answer:
After applying these commands your global .gitconfig
file will have the following lines (to speed up the process you can just copy them in the file):
[merge]
tool = kdiff3
[mergetool "kdiff3"]
path = C:/Program Files/KDiff3/kdiff3.exe
trustExitCode = false
[diff]
guitool = kdiff3
[difftool "kdiff3"]
path = C:/Program Files/KDiff3/kdiff3.exe
trustExitCode = false
For Mac users
Here is @Joseph's accepted answer, but with the default Mac install path location of kdiff3
(Note that you can copy and paste this and run it in one go)
git config --global --add merge.tool kdiff3
git config --global --add mergetool.kdiff3.path "/Applications/kdiff3.app/Contents/MacOS/kdiff3"
git config --global --add mergetool.kdiff3.trustExitCode false
git config --global --add diff.guitool kdiff3
git config --global --add difftool.kdiff3.path "/Applications/kdiff3.app/Contents/MacOS/kdiff3"
git config --global --add difftool.kdiff3.trustExitCode false
Well, the problem is that Git can't find KDiff3 in the %PATH%.
In a typical Unix installation all executables reside in several well-known locations (/bin/
, /usr/bin/
, /usr/local/bin/
, etc.), and one can invoke a program by simply typing its name in a shell processor (e.g. cmd.exe
:) ).
In Microsoft Windows, programs are usually installed in dedicated paths so you can't simply type kdiff3
in a cmd
session and get KDiff3 running.
The hard solution: you should tell Git where to find KDiff3 by specifying the full path to kdiff3.exe
. Unfortunately, Git doesn't like spaces in the path specification in its config, so the last time I needed this, I ended up with those ancient "C:\Progra~1...\kdiff3.exe" as if it was late 1990s :)
The simple solution: Edit your computer settings and include the directory with kdiff3.exe in %PATH%. Then test if you can invoke it from cmd.exe by its name and then run Git.