How do I open FileMerge.app on Mac OS 10.13+ and Xcode 9+?

Question

I see FileMerge in the Xcode app bundle:

/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Applications/FileMerge.app

I know I can open it on the command line using:

open /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Applications/FileMerge.app

But there seems like there should be an easier way. How can I tell Spotlight about FileMerge so I can open it with the keyboard? Is there another way to launch it without having to use the command-line?

Pulverulent

Answer 1

Symbolic links also work.

% cd /Applications

% ln -s Xcode.app/Contents/Applications/FileMerge.app/ .

Anadem

FWIW this does work for letting me go to /Applications/ and click on it, but doesn't make it show up in Spotlight (at lest not so far, maybe it will change, but usually Spotlight picks up changes to Applications immediately) – Thumbtack

This also happened to me, but then when I tried creating an alias, as another another answer suggests, it started showing the alias and the symbolic link, so later I removed the alias. – Ileana

Answer 2

The easiest way I found was open -a FileMerge

Tarr

Answer 3

Put an alias into the Applications folder. Spotlight and Launchpad will find it.

Hitchhike

Hold command and option while dragging FileMerge.app to /Applications to create an alias without macOS wanting permissions to create the alias in the Xcode app's directory. – Capacitate

Answer 4

On MacOS Catalina, you just need to open spotlight (cmd+space) and type "FileMerge".

Systematism

Are you sure? I have a fresh copy of Catalina from a laptop bought Jan 2020 and Xcode is installed, but Spotlight doesn't find FileMerge. – Thumbtack

@Thumbtack it finds FileMerge on Mojave too. No need to do anything. Retry after ticking all boxes in spotlight preferences. – Brakesman

yeah, it is not showing up anymore on spotlight, MacOS 10.15.6 – Systematism

@Systematism Right-click on Xcode and select Show Package Contents. You should be able to locate FileMerge this way on macOS Ventura 13.2 at /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Applications – Motherly

Answer 5

I had to do xcode-select -s /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer in order to have opendiff be accessible (required for SourceTree).

Friarbird

I came here looking for a way to launch FileMerge from the command line while passing the left and right file paths to it programmatically. It looks like that is apparently exactly what opendiff is (opendiff <left> <right>). I wonder why they went with that name instead of filemerge for the command line version? – Fulvia

Works for me, see also here: gist.github.com/kristofferh/2895878 – Knee

Alternatively, you can open Xcode, then select "Settings" -> "Locations" and select the command line tools in the "Command Line Tools" selector. – Lolland