The Merge for Mac OS X Download page on the Araxis website offers two different setup disk images (.dmg files). Please ensure that you download the correct one for your version of Mac OS X.
-
Merge200X_OSX10-5_YYYY.dmg
This disk image contains the version of Merge for Mac OS X v10.5 ‘Leopard’. The included version of Merge incorporates both 32-bit and 64-bit Universal binaries, and will work on both PowerPC and Intel versions of Mac OS X v10.5.
The 64-bit version of Merge, which will run by default if you are on a 64-bit capable architecture, can be useful when comparing very large files on high-memory (>4GB) machines, but is otherwise the same as the 32-bit version.
-
Merge200X_OSX10-4_YYYY.dmg
This disk image contains the version of Merge for Mac OS X v10.4 ‘Tiger’. The included version of Merge is a 32-bit Universal binary, which will work on both PowerPC and Intel versions of Mac OS X v10.4.
For both disk images, the 200X in the filename indicates the year in which the version of Merge was released; the YYYY indicates the build number.
Installing the main Merge application
To install the Merge application itself:
-
If you haven’t already, open and mount the Merge disk image (.dmg file) that you have downloaded. You will need to accept the Merge licence agreement to do this.
-
Drag the Araxis Merge application from the disk image into your system’s Applications folder.
Integrating Merge with Finder (optional)
Merge comes with a context menu plugin for Finder. It adds commands to Finder’s context menus that enable you to launch Merge comparisons for selected files and folders.
To install the plugin:
-
Ensure that the Contextual Menu Items folder exists within the Library folder in your home folder (i.e. ~/Library/Contextual Menu Items). If not, create it.
-
Copy the AraxisMergeCMP.plugin file from the Contextual Menu Items folder in the Merge installation disk image into the Library/Contextual Menu Items folder under your home folder.
-
The plugin will become active the next time you log in to Mac OS X.
To make the plugin available to all users, use /Library/Contextual Menu Items instead of ~/Library/Contextual Menu Items above.
Installing the Merge command-line utilities (optional)
If you wish to use Merge from the command-line, or integrate it with another application, you will need to install the Merge command-line utilities. These can be placed anywhere on your system, should also be part of your preferred command-line shell’s search path.
To install the command-line utilities:
-
Copy the contents of the Utilities folder on the Merge disk image to your chosen destination folder (e.g. ~/bin or /usr/local/bin).
-
Verify that the relevant users have execute permission on the utility files you have just copied.
-
Ensure that the folder to which you have copied the utilities is part of your shell’s search path. If you are using Bash, and you have put the files ~/bin, you might add the following to your .bash_profile file:
export PATH=$PATH:$HOME/bin
Whenever upgrade Merge, ensure that the installed Merge command-line utilities match the version of the main Merge application
that you have installed.
Integrating Merge with other applications (optional)
Please see Integrating with Source Control, Configuration Management and Other Applications for information about using Merge with certain other applications.
Sample files
The Sample Files folder on the Merge disk image contains samples files that you might wish to compare using Merge.
Sample scripts
The Sample Scripts folder on the Merge disk image contains samples AppleScript files. See the AppleScript API page for further information.