The Merge plugin for Git enables Merge to access versions of files located within a local Git repository. It is included as a standard part of the Merge installation.
What you can do with the plugin
The plugin enables Merge to populate the
button drop-down versions menu appropriately. For more information, see Comparing Text Files (or Typed/Pasted Text).
The plugin provides read-only access to revisions of files within a local Git repository. To modify files within the repository, you will need to use one of the Git tools to open/edit/submit files.
The plugin is not able to access the contents of remote repositories, so it is necessary to create a local clone of a remote repository first.
Preparing Merge to use the plugin
Merge has been tested with the msysGit
Git distribution. The plugin requires the Git command-line client (git.cmd) to be installed and its containing directory present in the Windows system PATH environment variable.
If you wish Merge to populate the
button drop-down versions menu with any other revisions of the files or folders you are comparing, ensure that the Options… > Application > Show file versions from SCM systems option is checked.
Using the Git plugin
The Git plugin provides access to versions of a working copy of a version-controlled file whose path has been entered within one of the path input fields in a file comparison window. To specify a specific version of a version-controlled file for comparison, use a URI of the form git://X:\Absolute\Path\To\File or git://X:\Absolute\Path\To\File#revision.
Examples
| URI | Description |
|---|---|
| C:\Users\username\repository\notepad.cpp | Specifies the working copy of the file notepad.cpp. |
| git://C:\Users\username\repository\notepad.cpp | Specifies the tip revision of the file notepad.cpp. |
| git://C:\Users\username\repository\notepad.cpp#42ab8b0c4790b7bd91541b068b7594692900b172 | Specifies the revision of notepad.cpp that has the hash value 42ab8b0c4790b7bd91541b068b7594692900b172. |
Accessing files and folders already in your client workspace
If files or folders are already synced in your client workspace, you access them as you would any other file or folder on
your hard disk. You do not need to use an git:// URI to do so.
Integrating Merge with the Git command-line tools and graphical front-ends
Merge itself integrates well with Git. For more information, see Integrating with Source Control, Configuration Management and Other Applications.
