How to Install

The latest release of Merge is available from the Download Araxis Merge page. That release will typically support reasonably current versions of macOS.

Before installation:

Please check the system requirements in the Release Notes on the Araxis website to ensure that your system is compatible with Araxis Merge. Any operating system updates that may be required for your system are mentioned on that page.
Ensure that your serial number’s support expiry date is after the build date of the version of Merge that you are installing. For more information about serial numbers and support expiry dates, please see Understanding Serial Numbers, Support Expiry & Upgrade/Support Entitlement.

Identifying appropriate releases of Merge for old versions of macOS and OS X

When using an older version of macOS or OS X that is unsupported by the latest release of Merge, please use the last supported release of Merge for your operating system version, as indicated in the table below.

Older releases are typically available for download from the release notes page. Please contact Araxis if you cannot find a desired release there.

For older releases of Merge (Merge 2017.4937 and earlier), there is a separate Merge installation disk image for each version of macOS or OS X. You must use the correct one for your operating system version, otherwise Merge will not work properly. (Newer releases of Merge have a single installation disk-image for all supported operating system versions.)

Operating System	Last Supported Merge Release
macOS 12 Monterey	Merge 2024.6000
macOS 11 Big Sur	Merge 2023.5915
macOS 10.15 Catalina	Merge 2022.5786
macOS 10.14 Mojave	Merge 2021.5602
macOS 10.13 High Sierra	Merge 2019.5350
macOS 10.12 Sierra	Merge 2019.5137
OS X 10.11 El Capitan	Merge 2018.5008
OS X 10.10 Yosemite	Merge 2017.4884. Installation disk images for Yosemite-compatible releases have the naming convention `Merge20XX.YYYY-OSX10.10.dmg`.
OS X 10.9 Mavericks	Merge 2016.4774. Installation disk images for Mavericks-compatible releases have the naming convention `Merge20XX.YYYY-OSX10.9.dmg`.
OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion	Merge 2014.4459. Installation disk images for Mountain Lion-compatible releases have the naming convention `Merge20XX.YYYY-OSX10.8.dmg`.
OS X 10.7 Lion	Merge 2014.4459. Installation disk images for Mountain Lion-compatible releases have the naming convention `Merge20XX.YYYY-OSX10.7.dmg`.
OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard (64-bit)	Merge 2013.4415. Installation disk images for Snow Leopard-compatible releases have the naming convention `Merge20XX.YYYY-OSX10.6.dmg`.
OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard (32-bit)	Merge 2013.4283. Installation disk images for Snow Leopard-compatible releases have the naming convention `Merge20XX.YYYY-OSX10.6.dmg`.
OS X 10.5 Leopard	Merge 2012.4246. Installation disk images for Leopard-compatible releases have the naming convention `Merge20XX.YYYY-OSX10.5.dmg`.
OS X 10.4 Tiger	Merge 2009.3793. Installation disk images for Tiger-compatible releases have the naming convention `Merge20XX_OSX10-4_YYYY.dmg`.

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)

Please see Integrating with Finder for instructions specific to your version of macOS.

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 add the command-line utilities to your preferred command-line shell’s search path.

To install the command-line utilities:

Ensure that the Utilities folder within the Araxis Merge application bundle is part of your command-line shell’s search path. For example, if you use Zsh, you could add the following line to the .zshrc file in your home directory. If you use Bash, you would add it to .profile (or .bash_profile) in your home directory instead.
```
export PATH=$PATH:/Applications/Araxis\ Merge.app/Contents/Utilities
```
Note that this line will place the Merge utilities on your PATH after any existing commands. If you encounter problems using a Merge command-line utility, check that there is not an identically named command elsewhere on your path. Note specifically, for example, that ImageMagick provides its own compare command. You can list all the compare commands in your PATH in decreasing order of precedence by running:
```
which -a compare
```

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 and scripts (optional)

The Sample Files folder on the Merge disk image contains samples files that you may wish to compare using Merge.

The Sample Scripts folder on the Merge disk image contains samples AppleScript files. See the AppleScript API topic for further information.