Meld

Meld — A visual diff and merge tool targeted at developers.

Description

Meld helps you compare files, directories, and version controlled projects. It provides two- and three-way comparison of both files and directories, and has support for many popular version control systems.

Meld helps you review code changes and understand patches. It might even help you to figure out what's going on in that merge you keep avoiding.

Installation

Arch

Install the meld package for the stable version.

Or the meld-git^AUR for the latest commit version.

Flatpak

Also available as a Flatpak from Flathub.

Tip If you have not already set up Flatpak, install the flatpak package.

You can install Meld with:

$ flatpak install flathub org.gnome.Meld

To run the Flatpak version:

$ flatpak run org.gnome.Meld

Warning If you plan to use Meld as a git difftool, the native Arch package is recommended to simplify path resolution and integration.

Usage

Meld can be launched from the terminal or the application menu of your desktop environment.

You can interact with meld via terminal or GUI

Usage example

Comparing two files via terminal

$ meld file1.txt file2.txt

Comparing two files via GUI

New comparison > File > Choose file1.txt and file2.txt > Compare

Version Control Systems Integration

Meld integrates with many version control systems to let you review local changes and perform simple version control tasks.

Git configuration

Meld can be set as the default difftool and mergetool for Git.

Run the following commands to configure Git to use Meld:

git config --global diff.guitool meld
git config --global merge.tool meld

Or edit your ~/.gitconfig manually:

~/.gitconfig

[diff]
    guitool = meld
[merge]
    tool = meld

SVN

Is possible to use Meld with Subversion.

Tip Make sure subversion package installed on your machine.

Use command:

svn diff --diff-cmd meld nome_file

File Managers Integration

Nautilus

To add "Compare" options to the context menu in Nautilus, install the nautilus-compare^AUR package. Restart Nautilus for changes to take effect.

Thunar

In Thunar, you can set up a custom action.

Go to Edit > Configure custom actions.
Add a new action.
Command: meld %F
Appearance conditions: Check "Directories" and "Text files".

Tips and tricks

Color Schemes

Meld supports syntax highlighting for a better visualization.

Specific color preferences can be changed inside Meld via the Preferences menu.

Troubleshooting

Missing Context Menu in Nautilus

If the context menu items do not appear after installing nautilus-compare^AUR, ensure you have restarted the file manager completely:

$ nautilus -q

Or try rebooting your machine.