Dirdiff-2.1.Paul Mackerras <>Dirdiff is a graphical tool for displaying the differences betweendirectory trees and for merging changes from one tree into another.Dirdiff can handle up to 5 trees. It displays a main window with alist of the files which are different between the trees, with coloredsquares to indicate the relative ages of the versions. A menu allowsyou to display the differences between any two of the versions inanother window. Another menu allows you to copy the file from onetree to another.The differences window basically displays the output of `diff -u' withcolored backgrounds to indicate which version each line comes from.The differences window also has a series of checkboxes which allow youto selectively apply changes from one version to another. You applythe selected changes using the merge menu. Dirdiff will then pop upanother window containing the merged file. You can then edit themerged version and save it back into file.Dirdiff now also has a file mode, which can be used for viewing thedifferences between files and for merging changes from one file intoanother. This mode is invoked if regular files are specified on thecommand line (or in the new directory/file chooser, see below) ratherthan directories. (Dirdiff will exit with an error message if somefiles and some directories are specified.)What's new in dirdiff-2.1.--------------------------* The diff display window can now display 3-way, 4-way and 5-way diffs as well as the normal 2-way diffs. When a line is identified as coming from multiple files, most of it will be colored for the newest of those files, and extra colored bars at the left of the line will identify which other files it is in.* You can now modify the diff display interactively (for example, to make it more understandable). You can use the middle mouse button to drag the blue separator bars to expose more context, or drag colored diff lines up and down (the movement is constrained so as to not alter the meaning of the diff). Dragging context lines splits them into colored diff lines.* There is now a menu on the diff display window for generating patches embodying the changes that could be made with the merge menu. That is, the diff lines that are checked in the diff viewer will be made into - and + lines in the generated patch.* The BitKeeper integration feature has been removed. I plan to add generic features for integration with arbitrary SCM systems in future.What was new in dirdiff-2.0.----------------------------* Some great new features from Dorothy Robinson: - A dialog box for choosing the directories to be diffed, if dirdiff is invoked without specifying any directories or files on the command line. - Colored icons instead of squares in the file list window. - Colored icons in the Diff and Copy/Del menus (provided you are using Tk 8.4 or later). - Modifications so dirdiff can be used under Windows. - A color key showing the ordering of the colors. - Use of two-level menus for the Diff, Copy/Del and Patch menus (the Diff and Copy/Del menus use two levels only when there are sufficient alternatives for it to make things simpler). - A filename search function using the filename bar in the file list window. - Options to allow the user to select external diff and file viewer programs.* There is now a mode for ignoring files in a directory if they match any of the patterns listed in the .cvsignore in that directory. This is invoked with the -C command-line option or by choosing the "Ignore files in .cvsignore" option in the Options menu.* Some users have requested a mode in which, when a directory exists in one tree but not another, dirdiff display the files in that directory as existing in the one tree but not the other (rather than displaying just a single line for the directory). This mode is enabled by choosing the "Show files that aren't in some dirs" option in the Options menu.* Trees can now be marked as "read-only" in the Options menu. This means that menu options that would modify those trees (in the Copy/Del, Touch and Merge menus) will not be offered.* Files can be added to the excluded file list by selecting them and choosing "Exclude selection" under the File menu.* Changes to the "Underline tabs" mode now take effect immediately.Installation.-------------Dirdiff is a Tcl/TK script, so no compilation is required. Dirdiffhowever can make use of a shared library called filecmp.so.0.0 forcomparing files. This is optional, but it has two benefits: (a)comparing files is faster with filecmp.so.0.0 (without it, dirdiff hasto start an external process running `cmp'), and (b) filecmp.so.0.0can optionally ignore RCS and BK strings when it is comparing two files.The Makefile in this directory will compile filecmp.so.0.0, andinstall it and dirdiff. By default dirdiff is installed in /usr/binand filecmp.so.0.0 is installed in /usr/lib. Doing `make' willcompile filecmp.so.0.0; `make install' will install dirdiff andfilecmp.so.0.0.Usage.------To use dirdiff, you invoke it from the command line with a list ofdirectories (between 2 and 5). For example, suppose I have 3 copiesof the Linux kernel source code, in directories called linux, bk, andpmac. I can see the differences between these 3 trees with a commandlike:$ dirdiff linux bk pmacThis will display the file list window and start comparing the trees,displaying files which differ as they are found. To see thedifferences between two versions, click on the file name and thenselect the versions to compare from the Diff menu. To copy from onetree to another, click on the file name and select the copy operationfrom the Copy menu.In the differences window, there are checkboxes to the left of all thesections which are different. You can use button 1 to select anindividual checkbox, or shift-button 1 or button 3 to select a wholegroup. Selecting a line means that you are asking for that change tobe made when you update either of the files using the Merge menu. Theline will be removed if it is already present or added if it is notpresent.Starting with dirdiff-2.0, you can start dirdiff without any argumentsand it will pop up a dialog box where you can enter the directories tobe compared.>