Replace visual studio 2012 Diff tool with winmerge when using Microsoft Git Provider

Question

I have a Visual Studio 2012 v3 and git extensions installed.

I want to change the default merge tool to winmerge but it seems that this is not a trivial task when Microsoft Git Provider is chosen.

When i go to VS -> Tools -> Options -> Source Control I have only Plug-in-Selection tab and cannot choose configure tools to change to WinMerge.

Is there any way of using Git Extensions with WinMerge inside VS2012?

Germann

Note also that Git Extensions are not the Microsoft Visual Studio Tools for Git, they are two different technologies. – Delastre

Answer 1

Backed up by that DZone-article, the trick is to configure the diff-tool in git.config:

1. Open the git bash in your repository

2. Create a config section for WinMerge as a diff-tool:

   $ git config --local difftool.winmerge.cmd '"C:\Program Files (x86)\WinMerge\WinMergeU.exe" "$LOCAL" "$REMOTE"'
   

3. Configure git to switch to WinMerge as the diff-tool:

   $ git config --local diff.tool winmerge
   

If you want to have this setting as a global setting, replace the --local switch with --global.

Logan

I think you mean replace --local with --global. – Breathtaking

@TheMouthofaCow Thank you for the hint - you're right of course. Edited my response accordingly. – Logan

It works for kdiff3 as well. Just replace winmerge with kdiff3. – Pompom

What is "difftool.winmerge.cmd"? Is it a file from winmerge? – Tomblin