mergetool from .gitconfig being ignored?

Question

git config --global mergetool.bc3 "\"c:/program files (x86)/beyond compare 3/bcomp.exe\" \"$LOCAL\" \"$REMOTE\" \"$BASE\" \"$MERGED\""

git mergetool

/usr/lib/git-core/git-mergetool--lib: line 116: bcompare: command not found

This is extremely odd, because both ./.git/config and ~/.gitconfig look correct. Neither lists an entry for bcompare. Can git read or store configuration from anywhere other than .git/config or ~/.gitconfig?

Amazonite

Answer 1

Looks like the same issue as this guy had. It appears bc3 is a builtin tool name, and git won't allow that name to be overridden. Try using a name other than bc3.

I used "BeyondCompare3"

[mergetool "BeyondCompare3"]
    path = C:/Program Files/Beyond Compare 3/bcomp.exe
    cmd = \"C:/Program Files/Beyond Compare 3/bcomp.exe\" \"$LOCAL\" \"$REMOTE\" \"$BASE\" \"$MERGED\"

Gazetteer

That exactly explains what was going on. – Amazonite

Answer 2

If you need to override the path for a merge tool, you just need to set the variable mergetool.<tool>.path.

Custom merge tools can be specified with mergetool.<tool>.cmd (which shouldn't be necessary for Beyond Compare 3) but a variable of the form mergetool.<tool> has no meaning for git mergetool. If you were directed to try this from the documentation perhaps you can say where so this can be fixed.

Rancid

It's necessary if you're running out of cygwin. – Amazonite