Best Tool To Compare Folders And Files For Mac

Posted By admin  On 02.05.21

Active2 years, 11 months ago

Due to some SVN movement I got disconnected from SVN while I was in middle of a fairly large enhancement.

Now I have my current workspace (with changes and disconnected from SVN) and new workspace (latest from SVN).

DiffFork is a diff tool for Mac OS X. DiffFork can compare both folders and files, presenting differences in a visual format. * Block Guide and Scrolling in Sync. * Differences with Background Colors. A file comparison utility helps you visually compare and merge the differences between two (or more) different versions of the same file, or detect the variations between two different sets of data. These types of utilities are often called 'Diff' programs.

In short, the files on my production server are performing differently than the files on my dev server and I'm pulling my hair out. If I was on Windows, I'd be opening the dev file and the production file up in Notepad++ and using the compare feature to highlight the differences. Beyond Compare lets you easily compare files and folders, including text files (with syntax highlighting for HTML), Word Docs, and PDF files, among others. Available for Windows and Linux for $30 (standard edition) to $50 (pro edition). Basically, you create a git repository in folder A (the repo is in A/.git), then copy A/.git to B/.git, then change to B folder and compare simply by running git diff. And the --exclude functionality can be achieved with.gitignore. Originally a product for Microsoft Windows, the Beyond Compare team has contributed a fine diff tool to the Mac platform. Like Araxis Merge and DeltaWalker, it goes beyond (pun intended) comparing simple text and also allows diffing Word and PDF contents. Compare Contents Of Two Folders 3 Comments Home >> Blog >> Software >> Compare. If you have another way that you compare folders in Mac or Windows, please leave a comment and let us know how you do it. At my job I have to compare folders, and then decide which files need to go to which folder constantly.

I need to manually update the new workspace with the changes so I could check them in.

So I am looking out for a tool that can let me compare the two workspaces, tell for new files and folders and also updated files.

Does a tool like this exist? If so, could you recommend a good one?

Konrad Morawski
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Mukul GoelMukul Goel
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closed as not constructive by Filburt, casperOneJan 3 '13 at 13:08

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2 Answers

I use WinMerge. It is free and works pretty well (works for files and directories).

richardtzCompare folders windowsrichardtz

Best Tool To Compare Folders And File For Mac

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The tool that richardtz suggests is excellent.

Another one that is amazing and comes with a 30 day free trial is Araxis Merge. This one does a 3 way merge and is much more feature complete than winmerge, but it is a commercial product.

You might also like to check out Scott Hanselman's developer tool list, which mentions a couple more in addition to winmerge

The Bearded LlamaThe Bearded Llama
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Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged windowsfile-comparison or ask your own question.

Meld

Being free and open source, Meld is a very popular tool on Windows. It supports three-way comparing and merging and lets you edit files directly from the comparison view. Apart from diffing files, Meld also supports comparison of folders.

Beyond Compare

The Beyond Compare team makes a fine diff tool for Windows (as well as Mac and Linux, by the way). It goes well beyond (pun intended) diffing simple text and also allows comparing PDF, Excel and image files. The 'Pro' version also includes a solid three-way merge.

Compare Folders Mac

Araxis Merge

Just like Beyond Compare, Araxis Merge supports more than just text and image files. It lets you also compare office documents (like MS Word, Excel, Powerpoint, or ODF). For people working on both Windows and Mac, it's good to know that a single license is valid for both platforms.

KDiff3

Compare Folders Freeware Xp

Another free and open source tool answers to the name of KDiff3. The project hasn't see many updates in recent years, but it remains a solid diff and merge tool that should satisfy basic needs.

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DeltaWalker

Much like Araxis, the DeltaWalker diff tool also lets you compare office files. However, it goes one step further by letting you compare file archives like ZIP, JAR, and TAR files. If you're regularly performing comparisons on a folder basis, it's good to know that DeltaWalker shines with great performance in this area.

P4Merge

Compare Folders Freeware

Perforce, the company best known for its enterprise version control platform, also offers a solid diff tool: P4Merge is free of charge and comes with a basic feature set that makes it an interesting option.

Code Compare

Besides offering all the standard diff and merge capabilities, Code Compare comes with some special features like syntax highligthing and a VisualStudio integration.
The basic version can be used free of charge, while the Professional Edition delivers the full feature set.


Integrations

Another aspect to watch out for is integrations: before choosing your favorite tool, you should make sure that it plays nicely with the rest of your tool chain. I can already confirm that most of the mentioned tools work seamlessly with Tower, our own Git client.

If you don't need the power of a dedicated Diff tool application, the integrated diff views in Tower might even be sufficient for you:

See for yourself and try it 30 days for free.


Conclusion

Diff & merge apps are amongst the most underestimated tools. But a good one can be really helpful in a lot of situations. Try one of the above and see for yourself!

Compare Folders Windows

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