DeltaWalker - world's most advanced and intuitive two- and three-way visual file and folder comparison for Mac OS X, Windows and Linux. Use DeltaWalker to compare (diff) and merge files, compare and synchronize folders.
Active3 years, 9 months ago
votes
My favorite file comparison tool was Beyond Compare but since I recently switched to OS X, i'm no longer able to use it and I'm looking for an alternative, preferably a free one.
Update: I made the mistake not to specify that I am also looking for a tool that does directory comparison, not only files. Because this could make the already answers invalid I made another question for this What directory comparison tools can I use on OS X?
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16 Answers
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Beyond Compare 4 now runs also on OSX. Visit http://www.scootersoftware.com/beta.php?zz=beta4_whatsnew
orangebreezeorangebreeze
votes
This is an aggregation of the answers posted on SO's deleted clone, Graphical diff for Mac OS X. It includes links to each product, and the current price since last edit in USD.
Note that any links to SO will only be visible to users who can view deleted content, which requires either moderator privileges or 10k reputation on that site.
- Sourcegear's DiffMerge, shareware
- Joachim Eibl's KDiff3, free
- Black Pixel's Kaleidoscope, $69.99
- Bare Bones Software's TextWrangler, free
- Araxis's Merge, $129 + $29/year
- Deltopia's DeltaWalker, $39.95/$75.95
- Kai Willadsen's Meld, free
- Weipin Xia's DiffFork, $26
- Biscade's RoaringDiff, free
- tkdiff, free
There were some other suggestions, which were not diff tools in their own right, which I will list below:
- It (Beyond Compare) runs well in Wine, but I miss the shell integration. - Danyal Aytekin, May 11 '12, 13:01
- Eclipse also has a fairly decent comparison mechanism. - JeeBee, Oct 9 '08, 12:45
- P4Merge that comes with Perforce is pretty good and comes for free with perforce client. Both terminal and GUI version. - amok, Jul 7 '10, 23:19
- I had to use Vim because most of diffs mentioned here do not understand UTF-8. - user184880, Oct 6 '09, 9:56
That about wraps up that thread's merge into this one, as covered here.
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FileMerge is bundled with XCode, but I prefer Kaleidoscope which is not free.
Jason Salaz17.1k1616 gold badges8383 silver badges136136 bronze badges
nucnuc4,21822 gold badges2121 silver badges3737 bronze badges
votes
I use Kaleidoscope. Or just plain, old
diff
from the CLIryanprayogoryanprayogo
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It is not great, but the FileMerge bundled with the OS can be launched from the command line as
ThiloThiloopendiff a.txt b.txt
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nthonygreennthonygreen
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You can use
gentmattdiff
if you're using the command-line.36.8k4545 gold badges171171 silver badges259259 bronze badges
HarvHarv
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Changes.app has a great reputation and lots of features. Kaleidoscope is great too, and has a beautifully designed UI.
It's also worth mentioning if you're doing programming that Xcode 4 has visual diff tools built in now too.
Marc CharbonneauMarc Charbonneau
votes
There's also DeltaWalker.
It's $40, and there's a trial available.
Nathan Greenstein21.2k2121 gold badges8686 silver badges127127 bronze badges
user4393
votes
Here are which I've found:
- FileMerge (opendiff)It's bundled with Xcode with Command Line Tools installed
- DiffMergeIt's bundled with Xcode with Command Line Tools installed
- It's free and open source. Install by:
brew install vim
. - Can be installed using Homebrew via command:
brew install meld
, but probably it won't work. - Can be installed using Homebrew via command:
brew install kdiff3
- Can be installed using Homebrew via command:
brew install tkdiff
- Available at App Store
- Commercial with free trial.
- Commercial with free trial.
- Commercial with free trial.
Check also Comparison of file comparison tools at Wikipediafor the full list.
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kenorbkenorb7,66299 gold badges5454 silver badges103103 bronze badges
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There are a great many comparison tools available. Many do directories and files. Some even perform as merge tools (2 and 3 way). Of these some have already been mentioned in other answers and your choice will depend on what features you require, and how much you are prepared to pay for the tool. There is a good Wikipedia page with a comparison of many of the better known ones.
KevinKevin
File Compare For Mac
votes
I use Folder Sync It costs $8.99 on the Mac App Store. It works really nicely.
sacisaci
vote
P4Merge is a free, very nice diff and merge tool. It can:
- Diff files
- Do 3 way merges
- Do Folder diffs
- Visually diff 2 image files!
Some screenshots:
Visual diff of an image:
Brad ParksBrad Parks
vote
This tool https://filecomparisontool.com
- Web based, so it is compatible
- Mobile friendly
- Save comparison up to 6 months
- Share comparison via URL
- It is free!
MattMatt
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vim also has built-in support for side-by-side diff -
Here is a page describing vim diff mode in detail -
HarmeetHarmeet
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GitX-dev is a fork (variant) of GitX, a long-defunct GUI for the git version-control system. It has been maintained and enhanced with productivity and friendliness oriented changes, with effort focused on making a first-class, maintainable tool for today's active developers.
AbramAbram
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Active12 months ago
I am running Mac OS X 10.8.4 (Mountain Lion) and I am trying to open and scroll through a 42 GB .XML file.
I plan on using an XML parser to parse through it and delete parts, but first I need to know how the document is structured so I can know what parts to save.
How can I open this text / XML file and scroll through it so I can get a glimpse of its structure?
I tried my default text-editor, text-mate, and that couldn't open it. I tried gEdit and that shows the first 10 or so lines, but then quits after trying to load the rest.
I would greatly appreciate any and all suggestions!
Hennes60k77 gold badges9494 silver badges144144 bronze badges
Django JohnsonDjango Johnson
5 Answers
The easiest way is to use a terminal pager. Open a terminal and run
or
terdonterdon43.3k1111 gold badges9898 silver badges146146 bronze badges
Well, hexfiend is what I use, and love to use...
If it is a text file, you just go to Views and uncheck Hexadecimal option, it will show only text.
So, for example I scrolled to line: 37802466 superfast, no glitches...
Aleksandar PavićAleksandar Pavić
vi
will not read all file at once and will cache it. Give it a try. It can also syntax-hihglight it, so it's a plus over less
.bayindirhbayindirh
As @terdon already said: Terminal pagers will work regardless how big the file is.
(42 GB... Just curious how you managed to get a file that big...)
(42 GB... Just curious how you managed to get a file that big...)
I just verified that TextWrangler has a maximum limit of about 380 MB per file.
If you have a PC handy (or Wine) you can try the trail version of UltraEdit.
This can 100% certain deal with such files.
TonnyTonnyThis can 100% certain deal with such files.
18.4k33 gold badges3737 silver badges5858 bronze badges
The best tool for open and searching content I found was glogg
It is multiplatform and has a graphical interface.
ricardoricardo