use Winmerge inside of Git to file diff

Question

Is there a way to use Winmerge inside of git to do Diffs?

Answer 1

Since the thread is getting confusing and bifurcated, here are consolidated instructions for the Directory Listing "--dir-diff" WinMerge method for msysgit Git Windows.

Step 1 - Create a file named winmerge.sh at a location accessible to your path (such as /home/bin/winmerge.sh) with following contents.

#!/bin/sh
echo Launching WinMergeU.exe: $1 $2
"$PROGRAMFILES/WinMerge/WinMergeU.exe" -r -ub -dl "Remote" -dr "Local" "$1" "$2"

Step 2 - Type the following commands in Git Bash to instruct git to use winmerge.sh as difftool (these options get stored in /home/.gitconfig):

git config --replace --global diff.tool winmerge
git config --replace --global difftool.winmerge.cmd "winmerge.sh \"$LOCAL\" \"$REMOTE\""
git config --replace --global difftool.prompt false

Step 3 - Now you can test by typing the following command in Git Bash to start your WinMerge diff:

git difftool --dir-diff

Step 4 - For quicker access, create an alias for this command by adding this line to .bashrc in your home folder (or create .bashrc file with this line if file does not already exist):

alias diffdir='git difftool --dir-diff'

Step 5 - Now you can quickly see a diff in WinMerge just by typing the following command into Git Bash

diffdir