Configuring Mercurial - FileMerge for Apple Mac OS X

Question

How do I configure Apple's FileMerge program to function as Mercurial's merge tool? I have my .hgrc file setup in my home directory and I simply want to configure FileMerge as the merge program.

Answer 1

Update: The Mercurial wiki has a page about FileMerge. Read that first.

I haven't tried to use FileMerge but a general overview might help. Most of what you want to know is described at the Mercurial wiki's MergeProgram page. The short version is your typical choices are:

Set the HGMERGE environment variable to point at the merge tool you want.

or, add the following to your .hgrc:

 [ui]
 merge = /path/to/toolname

 [merge-tools]
 toolname.args = $base $local $other

The key is that a merge tool needs to take three arguments: the base revision, your local changes, and the changes from the other branch. You use the first configuration to specify the tool, and the second to specify how it takes arguments.

Answer 2

I haven't tried it, but I'm betting you need to point all the way to the FileMerge executable, not just the app bundle.

So:

[ui] merge = /Developer/Applications/Utilities/FileMerge.app/Contents/MacOS/FileMerge

Answer 3

As described in the hg wiki, this has worked for me with various versions of hg:

• Create a script somewhere in your $PATH, say in /usr/local/bin:

$ more /usr/local/bin/opendiff-w
#!/bin/sh
# opendiff returns immediately, without waiting for FileMerge to exit.
# Piping the output makes opendiff wait for FileMerge.
opendiff "$@" | cat

• Add the following sections to your ~/.hgrc:

[extdiff]
cmd.interdiff = hg-interdiff
cmd.opendiff = opendiff-w

[merge-tools]
filemerge.executable = opendiff-w
filemerge.args = $local $other -ancestor $base -merge $output