Good diff tools under Ubuntu GNOME

Question

Could somebody give me some recommendations on diff tools on Ubuntu? Actually what I need is not just file comparison, but also directory comparison.

I think diff tools under Windows is really most convenient, especially WinMerge.

But under Ubuntu, what I can get with high efficiency is only TkDiff, but it only support file comparison?

Hope to get some help from here.

Solberg

Answer 1

Meld is an actively-developed, open-source GUI-based diff utility targeted at developers.

• It is free
• It runs on Linux
• GNU License
• 40+ posts tagged as meld on Stack Overflow.
• Actively developed through February 2013 (the time of this posting)
• Allows two and three way comparison between files and folders
• Supports Subversion, Git, and Mercurial

Hoenir

But can it open two 40M files? Nope. – Blaylock

Also, altho it has a pretty face, I find that it's not too bright sometimes (Just Plain Wrong), in ways that I have never seen with WinMerge. – Hundley

very easy to install goto update softwar center then search meld, then install – Nabonidus

It doesn't support automatic merge, as kdiff3 does. Stopper for me. – Bernat

Answer 2

I usually use kdiff3 and happy with it. It can handle directories too.

Rigorous

meld has one advantage over kdiff3 which I learned just today. meld is capable of operating with process substitution-style input: meld <(ls this) <(ls that), while kdiff3 not so much. – Phanerozoic

Wojciech your answer would actually be a right answer. Process substitution is invaluable for comparisons between ssh files and other less obvious diffs. – Maremma

kdiff3 resolves most conflicts automatically, meld can't do that. – Gdynia

Answer 3

It's not free software, but Beyond Compare is now available for Linux. I haven't used the Linux version but found BC2 invaluable for merging and comparing files and directories on Windows.

Neogaea

Answer 4

I'm using the Krusader::Synchronize Directories (Ctrl+Y) tool for this task.

It compares directories and selects a newer files to rewrite the older ones automatically, then you can check the list of the differences and compare the files content (kdiff, kompare or xxdiff) while necessary. Finally you can start the synchronize action (copying files) itself.

It is crucial for this tool to have a file timestamps (modification time) set correctly.

Propene

Answer 5

Although not opensource, p4merge is free and available on Linux, Windows and Mac. If you are used to Perforce, it will also feel familiar.

My personal taste is kdiff3 but p4merge worth to be mentioned.

Prothalamium

Answer 6

While I find kdiff3 utmostly confusing every time, for simple tasks I like the dirdiff utility (see its manpage). It is a graphical tool, and while not strong in features for merging, it lets you get a quick overview of relevant differences (hide non-relevant by doing "File -> Hide selection").

Inchoation