Integrating with Source Control, Configuration Management and Other Applications

AccuRev

The AccuRev  Windows client can be configured to use Araxis Merge for file comparison and merge operations:

• Choose Preferences... from the Tools menu.
• Select the Diff/Merge tab.

• In the Diff entry field, enter the following:

  "C:\Program Files\Araxis\Araxis Merge\Compare.exe" /wait /2 /title1:"%3%" /title2:"%4%" %1% %2%

  Note: in the above path, replace C:\Program Files\Araxis\Araxis Merge\ with the full path of the Araxis Merge installation directory on your machine.

• In the Merge entry field, enter the following:

  "C:\Program Files\Araxis\Araxis Merge\compare" /wait /a3 /3 /title1:"Overlapping version" /title2:"Workspace version" /title3:"Common ancestor" %1% %2% %a% %o%

  Note: in the above path, replace C:\Program Files\Araxis\Araxis Merge\ with the full path of the Araxis Merge installation directory on your machine.

• Dismiss the Preferences dialog by clicking OK.

Alienbrain

Certain Avid Alienbrain clients include Merge (see the Alienbrain website  for full details). Merge is fully integrated with the Avid Alienbrain clients that include it.

AllChange

Intasoft  has selected Merge as the preferred comparison and merging tool for its AllChange configuration management product. By creating a Virtual File System (VFS) plugin, Intasoft is the first company to take advantage of the tight integration with SCM systems made possible by Merge. This means that Merge is able to browse AllChange repositories directly, providing a way accurately to control and compare baselines within the AllChange environment. The plugin offers hierarchical comparison of baselines, important for product release management and variant management. Further information is available on the AllChange File System Plugin page, and from the AllChange/Merge integration page  on the Intasoft website.

ClearCase

Several customers have kindly contributed the alternatives below for integrating Merge and ClearCase. Please note that Araxis has not tested these possibilities, and they are provided ‘as is’ in the hope that they might be useful.

• Michael McTernan has written the clearmerge utility to register Araxis Merge as the ClearCase graphical diff and, in the case of Merge Professional, the ClearCase merge tool.
• Another customer reports limited success with using Merge in place of the ClearCase diff tool to check changes to a given file. For Windows, he says that some benefit can be obtained if you edit the \Program Files\Rational\ClearCase\lib\mgrs\map file and change the file name in the third column to c:\progra~1\Araxis\compare.exe (or whatever the full path to the Merge compare.exe file is on your machine).

• Yet another customer writes:

  The description [above] works with dynamic views: one just has to edit the \Program Files\Rational\ClearCase\lib\mgrs\map file and replace the file name in the third column with the path to the compare.exe command-line utility. For example, c:\progra~1\Araxis\compare.exe.

  In case of ClearCase snapshot views, this does not work, since the arguments sent to the comparison tool are not the same. For a file located on a dynamic view, the argument provided to the comparison tool is path_to_file@@version_number. For a file located on a snapshot view, the arguments sent to the comparison tool are: -fname file@@version_number and path_to_file. To be understood by Merge, these arguments must be mapped into something like /titleN:"file@@version_number" path_to_file.

  I have written a script in perl to perform this mapping:

  $titleN = 0;
  for ($i =0; $i <= $#ARGV; $i++) {
    if ($ARGV[$i] eq "-fname") {
      # it is a title, delete the parameter
      $ARGV[$i] = "";
      $titleN += 1;
      ## process next param:
      ## replace it by /titleN:"$argv[$i]"
      $i++;
      $ARGV[$i] = "/title$titleN:\"$ARGV[$i]\"";
    }
  }
  system "E:/Tools/Araxis~1/Compare.exe @ARGV";

  Unfortunately, ClearCase does not support batch files in the \Program Files\Rational\ClearCase\lib\mgrs\map file. As a work-around, I used perl2exe shareware application  to transform the perl script into a Win32 executable.

CS-RCS

We have been provided with the following instructions for integrating Merge with CS-RCS  by a customer:

• Run CS-RCS’s Document Explorer.
• Choose Project > Settings > File Types
• Either choose a specific file type (e.g. TXT) and click Edit, or click Default to edit the default behaviour.
• In the Difference Analysis Tool section, choose Custom Tool and fill in the path to compare.exe (located in the Merge installation directory). Ensure that Use long names is checked.
• In the Merge Analysis Tool section, choose Custom Tool Base1 and fill in the path to compare.exe (located in the Merge installation directory). Ensure that Use long names is checked.

Dreamweaver

Adobe (Macromedia) Dreamweaver  8 integrates with Araxis Merge and can launch a two-way file comparison. Consequently, the Standard Edition of Merge is sufficient if you will be using it only with Dreamweaver.

To Dreamweaver 8 to use Merge as the file comparison tool:

• Chose Edit > Preferences....
• Select the File Compare category.
• Click the Browse... button to bring up the Select External Editor dialog.
• Locate and select Compare.exe in the Merge installation folder (typically something like C:\Program Files\Araxis\Araxis Merge).
• Click the Open button. The full path to the Merge Compare.exe utility should now be shown in the Choose application to compare files entry field.
• Click OK to dismiss the Preferences dialog.

Eclipse

For Eclipse , see the entry for Subclipse.

FinalBuilder

Araxis Merge can easily be integrated into your FinalBuilder  build process. FinalBuilder includes two actions, ‘Araxis Compare Files’ and ‘Araxis Compare Folders’. These enable you to perform file and folder comparisons using Araxis Merge. The actions are configured in the FinalBuilder GUI, and don’t require knowledge of the command-line arguments for Merge. The actions can also be used to alter the flow of the build process, depending on the result of the comparison.

FreeVCS

It has been reported that Merge integrates smoothly into FreeVCS  using compare.exe. FreeVCS is widely used in the Delphi community. To configure FreeVCS to use Merge:

• Open the FreeVCS Project Manager.
• Choose Options > Properties > Compare Tools.
• Add a custom tool with filename compare.exe (located in the Merge installation directory). The parameters should be %1 %2.

Git (msysGit)

Merge integrates tightly with Git . Araxis provides a Git File System Plugin to enable Merge to access files in Git depots directly. Merge is also able to populate the button drop-down versions menu with other revisions of each file being compared. For more information, see Comparing Text Files (or Typed/Pasted Text).

msysGit  can also be configured to use Merge for file comparison and merge operations.

Newer Git versions

As of v1.6.4, Git includes support for Araxis Merge. The following configuration step has been tested using msysGit v1.7.1.

To use Araxis Merge for file comparison and file merging with msysGit v1.6.4 or later:

• Update the appropriate Git configuration file  by adding the following diff and merge tool configurations:

  [diff]
  tool = araxis
  [difftool "araxis"]
  path = C:\\Program Files\\Araxis\\Araxis Merge\\compare.exe
  
  [merge]
  tool = araxis
  [mergetool "araxis"]
  path = C:\\Program Files\\Araxis\\Araxis Merge\\compare.exe

  Note: in the above paths, replace C:\\Program Files\\Araxis\\Araxis Merge\\compare.exe with the full path to the Merge compare.exe command-line utility that you have installed on your machine. Note the use of double-backslashes to separate path elements.

• To compare files, use the git difftool  command. To resolve conflicting changes after merging files from a branch or remote repository, use git mergetool .

Legacy Git versions

Versions of msysGit prior to v1.6.4 can be configured to use Merge with the instructions below (tested with msysGit v1.6.1).

To use Araxis merge for file comparison and file merging with older versions of msysGit:

• Update the appropriate Git configuration file  by adding the following diff tool configuration:

  [diff] 
  external = C:\\Program Files\\Araxis\\Araxis Merge\\araxisgitdiff.exe
  renames = true
  
  [mergetool "araxis"] 
  cmd = 'C:\\Program Files\\Araxis\\Araxis Merge\\araxisgitmerge.exe' "$REMOTE" "$BASE" "$LOCAL" "$MERGED"
  trustExitCode = false
  
  [mergetool]
  keepBackup = false
  
  [merge]
  tool = araxis
  stat = true

  Note: in the above paths, replace C:\\Program Files\\Araxis\\Araxis Merge\\araxisgitdiff.exe and C:\\Program Files\\Araxis\\Araxis Merge\\araxisgitmerge.exe with the full paths to the Merge araxisgitdiff.exe and araxisgitmerge.exe command-line utilities that you have installed on your machine. Note the use of double-backslashes to separate path elements.

• To compare files using older versions of Git, use the git diff  command. To resolve conflicting changes after merging files from a branch or remote repository, use git mergetool .

Git (Cygwin)

Git on Cygwin  can be configured to use Merge for file comparison and merge operations.

The following configuration step has been tested using the Cygwin distribution of Git v1.7.1.

To use Araxis Merge for file comparison and file merging:

• Update the appropriate Git configuration file  by adding the following diff and merge tool configurations:

  [diff]
  tool = araxis
  [difftool "araxis"]
  cmd = '/cygdrive/c/Program Files/Araxis/Araxis Merge/Compare.exe' /2 /wait `cygpath -w $LOCAL` `cygpath -w $REMOTE`
  
  [merge]
  tool = araxis
  [mergetool "araxis"]
  cmd = '/cygdrive/c/Program Files/Araxis/Araxis Merge/Compare.exe' /3 /a2 /wait `cygpath -w $REMOTE` `cygpath -w $BASE` `cygpath -w $LOCAL` `cygpath -w $MERGED`

  Note: in the above paths, replace /cygdrive/c/Program Files/Araxis/Araxis Merge/Compare.exe with the full path to the Merge compare.exe command-line utility that you have installed on your machine.

• To compare files, use the git difftool  command. To resolve conflicting changes after merging files from a branch or remote repository, use git mergetool .

IntelliJ IDEA

IntelliJ IDEA  can be configured to use Merge for file and folder comparisons, and also for file merging. The following steps have been tested with IntelliJ IDEA 12.1.1.

To configure IntelliJ IDEA to use Merge as the file and folder comparison tool:

• Choose File > Settings…
• Select External Diff Tools in the list on the left side of the Settings window.

• Check the Use external tool to compare folders checkbox. In the accompanying Path to executable field, enter the following:

  C:\Program Files\Araxis\Araxis Merge\Compare.exe

  Note: in the above path, replace C:\Program Files\Araxis\Araxis Merge\ with the full path of the Merge installation directory on your machine.

• Check the Use external tool to compare files checkbox. In the accompanying Path to executable field, enter the following:

  C:\Program Files\Araxis\Araxis Merge\Compare.exe

  In the above path, replace C:\Program Files\Araxis\Araxis Merge\ with the full path of the Merge installation directory on your machine.

To configure IntelliJ IDEA to use Merge as the merging tool:

• Choose File > Settings…
• Select External Diff Tools in the list on the left side of the Settings window.

• Check the Use external merge tool checkbox. In the accompanying Path to executable field, enter the following:

  C:\Program Files\Araxis\Araxis Merge\Compare.exe

  In the above path, replace C:\Program Files\Araxis\Araxis Merge\ with the full path of the Merge installation directory on your machine.

• Enter the following in the Parameters field:

  /a2 /3 /title1:Theirs /title2:Ancestor /title3:Yours %3 %2 %1 %4

If Merge is used to make changes to a file that IntelliJ IDEA has stored in memory, perhaps following a merge operation, IntelliJ IDEA might ask whether you wish to keep the file it has in memory or update it with the contents of the modified file on disk. It is most likely you will want to load changes from disk following a merging operation.

IBM Rational Synergy

IBM Rational Synergy  can be configured to work with Merge.

Ensure that compare.exe is accessible to Synergy  by adding C:\Program Files\Araxis\Araxis Merge (or the correct path to your Merge installation directory) to your PATH environment variable.

Edit C:\Program Files\IBM\Rational\Synergy\7.1\etc\ccm.properties file as follows:

replace

windows.tool.compare.ascii = %ccm_compare

with

windows.tool.compare.ascii = compare.exe
    /max /2 %file1 %file2

and replace

windows.tool.merge.ascii = %ccm_merge

with

windows.tool.merge.ascii = compare.exe /max 
    /wait /3 /a2 %file1 %ancestor %file2 %outfile

Thank you to Herve Burtin for providing the original instructions.

For further information on integrating third-party software tools with Synergy, see the Synergy documentation  on the IBM website.

Jalindi Igloo and CVS

Jalindi Igloo  is a program that allows you to connect Microsoft Visual Studio and other IDEs directly to a CVS repository. The program is completely free and can be used anyway you like. When used with CVS for source control it enables seamless integration of Merge with the products on the Jalindi Igloo compatibilty page .

Mercurial

Merge integrates tightly with Mercurial . Araxis provides a Mercurial File System Plugin to enable Merge to access files in Mercurial depots directly. Merge is also able to populate the button drop-down versions menu with other revisions of each file being compared. For more information, see Comparing Text Files (or Typed/Pasted Text).

Mercurial can also be configured to use Merge for file/folder comparison and file merge operations. The comparison integration uses the Extdiff extension , which is supplied with Mercurial.

The following integration instructions have been tested with Mercurial v1.8.4.

To configure Mercurial to use Araxis Merge for file merging:

• Update the appropriate Mercurial configuration file  to add the following merge program  configuration:

  [merge-tools]
  araxismergetool.premerge = False
  araxismergetool.args = /3 /a2 /wait /title1:"Other" /title2:"Base" /title3:"Local: "$local $other $base $local $output
  araxismergetool.executable = C:\Program Files\Araxis\Araxis Merge\ConsoleCompare.exe
  araxismergetool.checkconflict = True
  araxismergetool.binary = True
  araxismergetool.gui = True

  Note: in the above path, replace C:\Program Files\Araxis\Araxis Merge\ConsoleCompare.exe with the full path to the Merge ConsoleCompare.exe command-line utility that you have installed on your machine.

To configure Mercurial to use Araxis Merge for file comparison:

• Update the appropriate Mercurial configuration file  to create a new hg sub-command, arxdiff:

  [extensions]
  extdiff = 
  
  [extdiff]
  cmd.arxdiff = C:\Program Files\Araxis\Araxis Merge\ConsoleCompare.exe
  opts.arxdiff = /2 /wait

  Note: in the above path, replace C:\Program Files\Araxis\Araxis Merge\ConsoleCompare.exe with the full path to the Merge ConsoleCompare.exe command-line utility that you have installed on your machine.

  The /wait argument to ConsoleCompare.exe is required to enable file comparisons to be recompared as a different type (text, binary or image) from within Merge and, in the case when Mercurial launches a folder comparison, to enable file comparisons to be launched from that folder comparison.

Examples of using hg arxdiff:

• Launch a two-way file comparison showing the changes to a modified file myfile.c:

  hg arxdiff myfile.c

• Launch a two-way file comparison of revisions 1 and 2 of myfile.c:

  hg arxdiff -r1 -r2 myfile.c

• Launch a two-way file or folder comparison (as appropriate, depending upon the number of files modified) to show all the changes within the current working directory:

  hg arxdiff

• Launch a two-way file or folder comparison (as appropriate, depending upon the number of files modified) to show all the changes applied by the changeset with id 0bc544fad9e6:

  hg arxdiff -c 0bc544fad9e6

Mercurial (Cygwin)

It has been reported that Mercurial will work within Cygwin . The following configuration has not been tested but is expected to work. Please see the previous entry for examples of using a configuration such as this.

To configure Mercurial to use Araxis Merge for file merging:

• Update the appropriate Mercurial configuration file  to add the following merge program  configuration:

  [merge-tools]
  araxismergetool.premerge = False
  araxismergetool.executable = bash
  araxismergetool.args = -c '"/cygdrive/C/Program Files/Araxis/Araxis Merge/ConsoleCompare.exe" /3 /a2 /wait /title1:"Other" /title2:"Base" /title3:"Local:$(cygpath -w "$0")" "$(cygpath -w "$1")" "$(cygpath -w "$2")" "$(cygpath -w "$0")" "$(cygpath -w "$3")"' $local $other $base $output
  araxismergetool.checkconflict = True
  araxismergetool.binary = True

  Note: in the above path, replace /cygdrive/C/Program Files/Araxis/Araxis Merge/ConsoleCompare.exe with the full Cygwin path to the Merge ConsoleCompare.exe command-line utility that you have installed on your machine.

To configure Mercurial to use Araxis Merge for file comparison:

• Update the appropriate Mercurial configuration file  to create a new hg sub-command, arxdiff:

  [extensions]
  extdiff = 
  
  [extdiff]
  cmd.araxisdiff = bash
  opts.araxisdiff = -c '"/cygdrive/C/Program Files/Araxis/Araxis Merge/ConsoleCompare.exe" /2 /wait "$(cygpath -w "$0")" "$(cygpath -w "$1")"'

  Note: in the above path, replace /cygdrive/C/Program Files/Araxis/Araxis Merge/ConsoleCompare.exe with the full Cygwin path to the Merge ConsoleCompare.exe command-line utility that you have installed on your machine.

Perforce

Merge integrates tightly with Perforce . Araxis provides a Perforce File System Plugin to enable Merge to browse Perforce depots directly. This means that, for example, you can compare branches of source code directly within a depot without syncing them to the client workspace. Merge is also able to populate the button drop-down versions menu with other revisions of each file being compared. For more information, see Comparing Text Files (or Typed/Pasted Text).

If you have Perforce’s P4EXP installed, you can perform various Perforce actions (including Submit and Open for Edit) directly from within Merge. To do this, right-click a file or folder comparison and choose Explorer > Perforce from the context menu that appears.

To browse Perforce repositories directly from Merge:

• See the instructions on the Perforce File System Plugin page.

To configure P4Win (2000.1 release or later) to use Merge for file comparison and merging:

• Choose Options... from the Settings menu.
• Select the Diff/Merge tab.
• In the Diff Application group, select the User supplied Diff application radio button.
• Click the Browse button for the user supplied diff application, and select the file araxisp4diff.exe in the Merge installation folder.
• In Merge Application group, click the Browse and select the file araxisp4winmrg.exe in the Merge installation folder.
• Dismiss the Options dialog.
• P4Win should now open Merge for its comparison and interactive merging operations.

To configure P4V (2007.2 release or later) to use Merge for file comparison and merging:

• Choose Preferences... from the Edit menu (or, in older versions of P4V, the Tools menu).
• Select the Diff tab.
• Select the Other application radio button (or Use external application in older versions of P4V).
• For the Location field, click the Browse button for the user supplied diff application, and select the file araxisp4diff.exe in the Merge installation folder.
• Ensure that the Arguments field reads %1 %2. This step can be ignored for older versions of P4V, which do not have this field.
• Select the Merge tab.
• Select the Other application radio button (or Use external application in older versions of P4V).
• For the Location field, click the Browse button and select the file araxisp4winmrg.exe in the Merge installation folder.
• Ensure that the Arguments field reads %b %1 %2 %r. This step can be ignored for older versions of P4V, which do not have this field.
• Click the OK button to dismiss the Preferences dialog.
• P4V should now open Merge for its comparison and interactive merging operations.

To configure the Perforce command-line tool (p4.exe) to use Merge:

• Set the P4DIFF environment variable to the full path of the araxisp4diff.exe file in the Merge installation folder.
• Set the P4MERGE environment variable to the full path of the araxisp4winmrg.exe file in the Merge installation folder.

SmartSVN/SmartCVS

SmartSVN  and SmartCVS  clients can be configured to use Araxis Merge for file comparison and merge operations.

Ability to use an external tool for solving conflicts is not available  in the Foundation version of SmartCVS.

To configure SmartSVN/SmartCVS to use Araxis Merge for file comparison:

• Choose Preferences... from the Edit menu.
• Select File Compare in the tree on the left (File Comparators in SmartCVS).
• Select the * pattern in the table and click the Edit... button.
• Select the External Comparator radio button.

• In the Command entry field, enter the following:

  C:\Program Files\Araxis\Araxis Merge\Compare.exe

  Note: in the above path, replace C:\Program Files\Araxis\Araxis Merge\ with the location of the full path to the Araxis Merge Compare.exe utility on your machine.

• In the Arguments entry field, enter the following:

  /wait /2 "${leftFile}" "${rightFile}

• Click OK to apply the changes and exit the Edit dialog.

To configure SmartSVN/SmartCVS to use Araxis Merge for file merging:

• Choose Preferences... from the Edit menu.
• Select Conflict Solver under Actions in the tree on the left.
• Select the External Conflict Solver radio button.

• In the Command entry field, enter the following:

  C:\Program Files\Araxis\Araxis Merge\Compare.exe

  Note: in the above path, replace C:\Program Files\Araxis\Araxis Merge\ with the location of the full path to the Araxis Merge Compare.exe utility on your machine.

• In the Arguments entry field, enter the following:

  /3 /wait /a3 "${leftFile}" "${rightFile}" "${baseFile}" "${mergedFile}"

  Note: The "${baseFile}" template is not required when using SmartCVS.

• Click OK to apply the changes and exit the Preferences dialog.

Source Integrity Enterprise Edition

MKS Source Integrity  Enterprise Edition (SIEE) has the ability to integrate with Merge and MKS have kindly provided the instructions here. You need to set a variable in the client's IntegrityClientSite.rc file called vdiffCommand that points to Merge. An example line would look like the following (all on one line, regardless of the formatting below as shown in your browser):

vdiffCommand=C:/PROGRA~1/Araxis/ARAXIS~1/compare
    /a2 /title1:\"{1}\"
    /title2:\"{2}\" \"{3}\" \"{4}\"

Indentation above indicates continuation of the previous line.

Merge makes use of the title inputs from SIEE, using /title1 and /title2 flags. It is also necessary to use quotes around the inputs, and it is necessary to escape them with backslashes (\). Note that the title inputs from SIEE do not need to be defined, but are useful since without them, the comparison windows of Merge will only show the file name itself (c:\temp\F2EB.tmp vs revision 1.2).

With the vdiffCommand variable in place, Merge integrates almost seamlessly into SIEE's interface.

Source Integrity Standard Edition

MKS Source Integrity  Standard Edition (SISE) version 7.5+ for Windows has the ability to integrate with Merge and MKS have kindly provided the instructions here. SISE makes use of Windows environment variables and can pass this information to Merge. The following is a script (araxis.cmd) which can be added to the SISE's toolbar as a shortcut, and will compare revisions depending on the window you are in (Project or Archive) and what revisions you have selected. The script locates the appropriate revisions and checks them out into a temporary location, and passes the PATHS and other variables to the Merge compare.exe utility.

REM Setup temporary file names
set FILE1="c:\temp\revision1"
set FILE2="c:\temp\revision2"

REM Checkout the two revisions to the temporary files
co -p%MKSSI_REVISION1% %MKSSI_FILE% > %FILE1%
co -p%MKSSI_REVISION2% %MKSSI_FILE% > %FILE2%

REM Substitute the path to compare.exe below with the
    appropriate Merge installation directory on
    your machine (use the short form of the path

REM The following command should be entered
    on a single line
C:/PROGRA~1/Araxis/ARAXIS~1/compare.exe
    /a2 /title1:"Revision %MKSSI_REVISION1%"
    /title2:"Revision %MKSSI_REVISION2%"
    %FILE1% %FILE2%

Indentation above indicates continuation of the previous line.

SourceAnyWhere

We have preliminary instructions for integrating DynamSoft  SourceAnyWhere 4.2.4 with Merge, and would appreciate feedback on these from SourceAnyWhere users, particularly with respect to the merging settings.

To integrate DynamSoft SourceAnyWhere with Merge:

• Specify the full path to the Merge Compare.exe utility (typically something like C:\Program Files\Araxis\Araxis Merge\Compare.exe) as the Application for diff/merge.

• In the Arguments for diff files entry field, specify (all on one line):

  /title1:"%FIRST_LABEL%" /title2:"%SECOND_LABEL%" "%FIRST_FILE%" "%SECOND_FILE%"

• In the Arguments for diff directories entry field, specify (all on one line):

  /title1:"%FIRST_LABEL%" /title2:"%SECOND_LABEL%" "%FIRST_DIR%" "%SECOND_DIR%"

• In the Arguments for Two-way merge entry field, specify (all on one line):

  /wait /2 /title1:"%FIRST_LABEL%" /title2:"%SECOND_LABEL%" "%FIRST_FILE%" "%SECOND_FILE%" "%RESULT_FILE%"

• In the Arguments for Three-way merge entry field, specify (all on one line):

  /wait /3 "%THEIRS_FILE%" "%BASE_FILE%" "%YOURS_FILE%" "%RESULT_FILE%"

  Labels have been omitted in this case because the SourceAnyWhere documentation only mentions labels for the first and second files, and it’s not clear what the first and second file are in this case. We suggest some experimentation using the /title1 arguments demonstrated in the other fields. Please let Araxis know if you are successful with this.

SourceGear Vault

The following configuration steps were received from a customer and verified by Araxis for the Windows SourceGear Vault  client v4.1.4.

To configure SourceGear Vault client to use Merge for file comparison and merging:

• Choose Options... from the Tools menu.
• Select the Diff/Merge group in the tree on the left.
• In the Diff section on the right, click the Browse button for the user supplied diff application, and select the file Compare.exe in the Merge installation folder.

• Ensure that the Arguments field reads:

  /2 /title1:"%LEFT_LABEL%" /title2:"%RIGHT_LABEL%" "%LEFT_PATH%" "%RIGHT_PATH%"

• Make sure the Use built-in program for folder differences is unchecked.
• In Merge section on the right, click the Browse button and select the file Compare.exe in the Merge installation folder.

• Ensure that the Arguments field reads:

  /a2 /3 /title1:"%WORKING_LABEL%" /title2:"%DEST_LABEL%" /title3:"%OTHER_LABEL%" "%WORKING_PATH%" "%BASELINE_PATH%" "%OTHER_PATH%" "%DEST_PATH%"

• Click the OK button to apply the new settings and dismiss the dialog.

Support for SourceGear Vault is available from the SourceGear website .

SourceOffSite

For version 2.0 of SourceOffSite , choose the Options... item from the Tools menu, and fill in the fully-qualified path to compare.exe in the Application for comparing files field on the first page (General). We are told by SourceGear that SourceOffSite 3.5.1 should also work well with Merge. The follow caveats apply to version 3.0 and may also apply to other versions:

• The merge will only work on a Check In operation. SourceOffSite does not support merge on a Get. Ensure that you are performing a Check In that has conflicting changes (due to multiple check outs being enabled in the VSS database).
• The path to the compare.exe utility must be specified in SourceOffSite without spaces in the path name. If there are spaces in the path name, the compare.exe utility will not work properly.

Support for SourceOffSite is available from the SourceGear website .

StarTeam

Starbase  inform us that StarTeam v5.1 has the ability to integrate with Merge. To configure StarTeam to use Merge:

• Go go to Tools > Workstation Options, and choose the Files tab.
• Select the Merge Utility check box.
• In the path text box, type the path to the Merge compare.exe executable. For example, C:\Program Files\Araxis\Araxis Merge\compare.exe
• In the Options text box, type /wait /title1:"Branch Tip" /title2:"Common Ancestor (merge here)" /title3:"Your Version" /3 $branchtip $basefile $usertip $resultfile
• Click OK.

This works because:

• $branchtip is a placeholder for the path to the tip revision of the file to be merged.
• $usertip is a placeholder for the path to the local working file to be merged.
• $basefile is a placeholder for the path to the common ancestor for the $branchtip and $usertip files. It is important that the common ancestor is displayed in the middle file panel of Merge, which is why $basefile is the second filename argument in the Options text box. This is because you merge the required changes from the left and right file panels into the middle one, and then save the middle file panel’s contents as the resulting merged file.
• $resultfile is a placeholder for the path to the file that will store the output from the merged file. Merge will offer this as the default filename when you save the contents of the middle file panel.
• The three /titleN options provide meaningful names for the three file panels within Merge.

Each time that StarTeam needs to call Merge, it replaces the terms that start with $ with actual paths to those files and asks the operating system to execute the completed command.

Subclipse

Subclipse  is an Eclipse plug-in providing support for Subversion within the Eclipse IDE. It can be configured to use Merge as its merging tool. Merge will then be used whenever you choose Edit Conflicts from a Team menu in Eclipse.

Merge can also integrate directly with Subversion. Please see Subversion section for more information.

The following steps have been tested with Subclipse 1.6.13, Eclipse 3.6.0 and Subversion 1.6.

To configure Merge as the Subclipse merging tool:

• In the Eclipse Preferences window, select the Team > SVN > Diff/Merge page.
• Select the External radio button.

• In the adjacent entry field, enter the following (all on one line):

  C:\Program Files\Araxis\Araxis Merge\compare.exe

  Note: in the above path, replace C:\Program Files\Araxis\Araxis Merge\ with the full path of the Merge installation directory on your machine.

• In the Parameters field, enter the following (all on one line):

  /wait /merge /a1 /3 /title1:"Common Ancestor" /title2:"Theirs" /title3:"Yours" ${base} ${theirs} ${yours} ${merged}

• Click the Apply button.

Subversion

Merge integrates well with Subversion . Araxis provides a Subversion File System Plugin to enable Merge to browse Subversion depots directly. This means that, for example, you can compare branches of source code directly within a depot without syncing them to the client workspace. Merge is also able to populate the button drop-down versions menu with other revisions of each file being compared. For more information, see Comparing Text Files (or Typed/Pasted Text).

See also the entries for Subversive, Subclipse and TortoiseSVN.

To browse Subversion repositories directly from Merge:

• See the instructions on the Subversion File System Plugin page.

To configure the Subversion command-line tool (svn) to use Merge:

• Open your ‘SVN configuration area’ configuration file in a text editor. The default location for this file is %APPDATA%\Subversion\config.

• Uncomment the line that specifies the diff-cmd and set its value to the path of the Merge AraxisSVNDiff.exe executable in the Merge installation folder:

  diff-cmd = C:\Program Files\Araxis\Araxis Merge\AraxisSVNDiff.exe

• The Subversion command-line client versions 1.5 and later can be configured to merge non-conflicting changes automatically, but to launch Merge interactively to resolve conflicting changes.

  If you wish to have Subversion merge non-conflicting changes itself, and use Merge only for conflicting changes, add a merge-tool-cmd line to set the path of the Merge AraxisSVNMerge.exe executable:

  merge-tool-cmd = C:\Program Files\Araxis\Araxis Merge\AraxisSVNMerge.exe

  The merge-tool-cmd option is ignored when the value of the diff3-cmd option is defined. Ensure that the value of the diff3-cmd option has not been defined.

• Alternatively, if you would rather use Merge to resolve all changes, you can define the diff3-cmd configuration option instead of merge-tool-cmd. (Note that diff3-cmd is the only option for Subversion versions prior to v1.5.)

  If defined, diff3-cmd should be set to the path of the Merge AraxisSVNDiff3.exe command-line utility:

  diff3-cmd = C:\Program Files\Araxis\Araxis Merge\AraxisSVNDiff3.exe

• Save the modified configuration file and exit the text editor.
• Merge will now be launched when performing Subversion commands (e.g. svn diff, svn update and svn merge) that require a two or three-way comparison.

Subversive

Subversive  is the official Eclipse plugin providing support for Subversion within the Eclipse IDE. It can be configured to use Merge as its merging tool. Merge will then be used for file comparisons, and for merging whenever you choose Edit Conflicts from a Team menu in Eclipse.

Merge can also integrate directly with Subversion. Please see Subversion section for more information.

The following steps have been tested with Subversive 0.7.9, Eclipse 3.6.0 and Subversion 1.6.

To configure Merge as the Subversive file comparison and merging tool:

• In the Eclipse Preferences window, select the Team > SVN > Diff Viewer page.
• Click the Add… button.

• In the Extension or mime–type field, enter the following:

  *

• Within the Diff program arguments box, enter the following into the Program Path field:

  C:\Program Files\Araxis\Araxis Merge\Compare.exe

• In the larger field beneath, enter the following:

  /wait /2 "${mine}" "${theirs}" "${base}"

  Note: in the above path, replace C:\Program Files\Araxis\Araxis Merge\ with the full path of the Merge installation directory on your machine.

  Note: Subversive is inconsistent about which token it replaces with the remote file to be compared. Fortunately, when Subversion replaces ${base}, ${theirs} is an empty string and not passed to the external tool. In this situation, the external tool will open a file comparison using the file paths specified for ${mine} and ${base}.

• Within the Merge program arguments box, enter the following into the Program Path field:

  C:\Program Files\Araxis\Araxis Merge\Compare.exe

• In the larger field beneath, enter the following:

  /wait /merge /a1 /3 /title1:"Common Ancestor" /title2:"Yours" /title3:"Theirs" "${base}" "${mine}" "${theirs}" "${merged}"

  Note: in the above path, replace C:\Program Files\Araxis\Araxis Merge\ with the full path of the Merge installation directory on your machine.

• Click the OK button.
• Review the new settings in the Diff Viewer table.
• Click the Apply button.

Surround SCM

Seapine  Surround SCM 2009 has built-in support for Araxis Merge. To set Araxis Merge as the default application for comparison and merging:

• Choose User Options... from the Tools menu.
• Select the Diff/Merge tab.
• Edit the settings for a selected file type.
• Select Araxis Merge from the comparison application drop-down list.

Please see the Seapine website  for more details.

Team Foundation

See the entry for Visual Studio Team Foundation.

The Operations Pack (TOP) for HP NonStop

comForte  states that its TOP software now provides built-in support for comparing and merging files on NonStop servers using Araxis Merge.

To configure Araxis Merge as the tool to perform comparison/merging within TOP:

• Start TOP (make sure you have version 4.5.1 or later).
• Open the Global Options dialog (Session > Options > Global) and select the File Compare tab.
• Click on the Browse button and navigate to the Araxis Merge installation directory. Select the file compare.exe.
• Click the Araxis Merge button in the Options dialog to make the command-line parameter format match those of Araxis Merge.
• Click OK.

To use Araxis Merge from within TOP:

• Select one or more files in the main system explorer window.
• Right-click to bring up the context-sensitive menu.
• Select the Compare menu item.

TortoiseHg

TortoiseHg  has direct support for Araxis Merge 2010.3829 and later. If TortoiseHg finds Araxis Merge on a computer (via a registry key search), it will use Araxis Merge as the default diff and merge tool without any further configuration.

If you are using an older version of Araxis Merge, TortoiseHg will not find Araxis Merge automatically. In this case, add the following line to your user Mercurial.ini:

[merge-tools]
araxis.executable=${ProgramFiles}/Araxis/Araxis Merge/ConsoleCompare.exe

TortoiseSVN

The External Programs section of the TortoiseSVN  Settings window enables external diff and merging programs to be configured.

Merge can also integrate directly with Subversion. Please see Subversion for more information.

To configure Merge as the Diff Viewer:

• In the TortoiseSVN Settings window, select the Diff Viewer page (located under External Programs).
• Select the External radio button.

• In path field, enter the following (all on one line):

  "C:\Program Files\Araxis\Araxis Merge\compare.exe" /max /wait /title1:%bname /title2:%yname %base %mine

  Note: in the above path, replace C:\Program Files\Araxis\Araxis Merge\ with the full path of the Merge installation directory on your machine.

To configure Merge as the Merge Tool:

• In the TortoiseSVN Settings window, select the Merge Tool page (located under External Programs).
• Select the External radio button.

• In path field, enter the following (all on one line):

  "C:\Program Files\Araxis\Araxis Merge\compare.exe" /a2 /max /wait /3 /title1:%tname /title2:%bname /title3:%yname %theirs %base %mine %merged

  Note: in the above path, replace C:\Program Files\Araxis\Araxis Merge\ with the full path of the Merge installation directory on your machine.

TrackWare

Certain GlobalWare  TrackWare clients include Merge (see the GlobalWare website  for full details). Merge is fully integrated with the TrackWare clients that include it.

Visual SourceSafe

Merge includes a file system plugin that enables Merge to access files and folders within a SourceSafe  database. Merge is also able to populate the button drop-down versions menu with other revisions of each file being compared. For more information, see Comparing Text Files (or Typed/Pasted Text).

Visual SourceSafe 2005 enables third party tools like Merge to be used for comparison and merging. To configure Visual SourceSafe to use Merge, first open the SourceSafe Options dialog:

• In Visual Studio.NET 2005: Tools > Options... > Source Control > Plug-in Settings > Advanced....
• In the Visual SourceSafe 2005 client: Tools > Options....

Next, go to the Custom Editors page and add two new entries to the Editors list:

In the above command-lines, replace C:\Program Files\Araxis\Araxis Merge\ with the full path to your Merge installation directory.

Having configured these options, Merge will be used by both Visual Studio 2005 and Visual SourceSafe 2005 to compare and merge files.

Visual Studio Team Foundation

Team Foundation  integrates with Araxis Merge for both file comparison and merging.

The arguments for merging are taken from James Manning’s Blog . Yonatan Leonov has also written about using Merge with Team Foundation , with a particular emphasis on Merge Standard.

To configure Merge as the Team Foundation difference tool:

• Familiarize yourself with Microsoft’s How to: Associate a File Type with a Difference Tool  instructions.

• In step 7 of those instructions, provide the following in the Command entry field:

  C:\Program Files\Araxis\Araxis Merge\Compare.exe

  Note: in the above path, replace C:\Program Files\Araxis\Araxis Merge\ with the full path of the Merge installation directory on your machine.

• In step 8 of those instructions, provide the following in the Arguments entry field:

  /wait /2 /title1:%6 /title2:%7 %1 %2

To configure Merge Professional as the Team Foundation merging tool:

• Familiarize yourself with Microsoft’s How to: Associate a File Type with a Merge Tool  instructions.

• In step 7 of those instructions, provide the following in the Command entry field:

  C:\Program Files\Araxis\Araxis Merge\Compare.exe

  Note: in the above path, replace C:\Program Files\Araxis\Araxis Merge\ with the full path of the Merge installation directory on your machine.

• In step 8 of those instructions, provide the following in the Arguments entry field:

  /wait /swap /a3 /3 /title1:%6 /title2:%7 /title3:%8 %1 %2 %3 %4

To configure Merge Standard as the Team Foundation merging tool:

• See the discussion on Yonatan Leonov’s blog .

WinCvs

The WinCvs  client can be configured to use Araxis Merge for file comparisons. The following steps have been tested using WinCvs 2.1.1.

To configure WinCvs to use Araxis Merge for file comparison:

• Choose Admin > Preferences... > WinCvs.
• Set the drop-down field in the WinCvs tab to Programs.
• Select External Diff row in the table.
• Click the Browse... button beneath the table.

• In the Select the External Diff dialog window, select the file C:\Program Files\Araxis\Araxis Merge\compare.exe and click the Open button.

  Note: in the above path, replace C:\Program Files\Araxis\Araxis Merge\ with the full path of the Merge installation directory on your machine.

• In the WinCvs Preferences window, click the OK button to save and apply the changes.
• Select a file or folder of a module checked out from a repository and choose Query > Diff....
• In the Diff settings dialog window, check the Use the external diff checkbox and click the OK button.