Best file comparison tool

Question

I've been using Subversion for a while now. I love it. And the feature I use the most is diff. But sometimes it is really frustrating when your comparison windows is filled with changes like: block inserted here, block deleted here. Just because you moved some methods around in your last refactoring session.

All the tools I've see (TortoiseSVN-Compare, KDiff3, Eclipse-Compare, WinMerge) are nice but they aren't as good as I'd like them to be. What I'm missing the most is the ability to detect block movement. And it would be nice if the tool could display multiple revisions of a file in a nice side by side view.

Which tool do you use?

Answer 1

The two I've used and like are Araxis Merge, and Beyond Compare.

Answer 2

It's hard to beat Araxis Merge.

http://www.araxis.com/merge/index.html

Answer 3

I've been very happy with Beyond Compare.

Answer 4

Beyond Compare and KDiff3

Answer 5

Beyond Compare. Since version 3 it's available for Linux, too!

Answer 6

I am a big fan of KDiff3 http://kdiff3.sourceforge.net/

Multi-platform, comparison, merging, and much more. Still none of the "block movement" though.

Perforce's P4Diff/P4Merge tools are rather well-made too.

Answer 7

WinMerge gets it done for me

Answer 8

On Linux, meld.

Answer 9

I use WinMerge as well, does exactly what I need it to do.

Answer 10

I've been using ExamDiff Pro for ever. I've never felt the need to look for another one. Compares by line, by word, by character, compares directories, then compares the file pairs if needed ... the list goes on. Oh, and it's really ease to update either file of the comparison.

Answer 11

In WinMerge, check off "Enable moved block detection" under options|compare.

Answer 12

I'll throw in another vote for Araxis Merge. It works well with Perforce.

Answer 13

This was discussed before in Best Diff Tool

I have used WinMerge, Beyond Compare & Araxis Merge.

Ofcourse you can configure tortoise to use any of the above to show diff.

In my opinion, Araxis Merge is the best. Especially the reporting options are very handy for both for integration [delta releases] and management reporting!!

Answer 14

The DiffMerge works fine for me.

[]´s

Answer 15

Beyond Compare has been solid for me, but then so has TortoiseSVN.

Answer 16

I used to like Araxis Merge a lot.

Now I use WinMerge because I'm el cheapo.

Answer 17

I love WinMerge but the subversion one is also useful.

Answer 18

For me, the way the tool is integrated into the IDE or the file manager you use, is more important than the quality of the tool itself. Most file compare tools do descent job. What is important for me is how easy it is to launch the tool loaded with the files you want to compare.

When working on code I use Tortoise-Merge which I launch directly from Visual Studio + VisualSVN.

Outside the IDE I use Total Commander for file management, and I really like the way the file compare tool that comes with it is integrated. I can't really describe it but it is really cool, intuitive and fast.

Answer 19

Compare It from http://www.grigsoft.com/ It's so cool, I almost want to pay for it again every time it saves my butt.

Answer 20

+1 for beyond compare

Answer 21

I have tested most of the most popular ones WinMerge, Beyond Compare, ARaxis Merge, kDiff.

All failed to detect two similar blocks in different locations.

So the answer is that at text/text comparison they are all mostly garbage(except Araxis maybe). And the question should be: Which is the less worst file comparison program?

Answer 22

Diffuse - it actually does detect moved blocks properly, unlike many others (tried BC, WinMerge, P4Merge, ExamDiff Pro) What it lacks though, is customizability and BC-like option for ignoring unimportant changes.

Answer 23

I use Kompare for compare and merge and ... that is application for Linux and release in KDE4. see this http://www.caffeinated.me.uk/kompare/

Answer 24

Tortoise SVN (the nightlies at any rate, expected in 1.7) does this: http://svn.haxx.se/tsvn/archive-2010-04/0091.shtml

Answer 25

Take a look at the new Xdiff in Plastic SCM. It is the first diff tool able to detect code fragments that have been moved inside a file, even after being modified too.