239

I really like Araxis Merge for a graphical DIFF program for the PC. I have no idea what's available for linux, though. We're running SUSE linux on our z800 mainframe. I'd be most grateful if I could get a few pointers to what programs everyone else likes.

Azzabi Haythem
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scottb2
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    Nobody has mentioned tkdiff. Surprise! It is blazing fast compared to meld. – Ninad Mar 04 '14 at 09:14
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    I'm sorry. But this question is very constructive. Although it could be qualified as off-topic – lrleon Sep 01 '17 at 20:55
  • Helpful here too. And I would think "supported by ... expertise..." – nate Feb 18 '18 at 18:16
  • There are way more visual diff tools for Linux than those mentioned here, and Windows tools work quite well via Wine. However, [all the Linux visual diff tools that I've tried are extremely slow at comparing large files](https://wiki.dandascalescu.com/reviews/software/diffuse_-_the_one_best_visual_diff_tool_for_linux) - on the order of 30+ seconds vs. 1 second for a Windows tool. – Dan Dascalescu Dec 31 '18 at 17:52

13 Answers13

244

I know of two graphical diff programs: Meld and KDiff3. I haven't used KDiff3, but Meld works well for me.

It seems that both are in the standard package repositories for openSUSE 11.0

hugomg
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faran
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    I've found Meld to be pretty powerful also, although it does tend to be a sluggish on very large files. – stephen mulcahy Sep 22 '08 at 11:23
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    I like the SUbversion integration of Meld. If you open your current folder then you see a list of files that have changed since your last check-in. Very practical. – Alexis Wilke Dec 13 '12 at 05:45
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    +1 for Meld - really slick. Definitely one of the more readable GUI diff apps that I've used. – btongeorge Feb 06 '13 at 12:10
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    If you compere line by line, Meld is good. But if you make more changes on file meld can't find changes correctly. I think BeyondCompare best from Meld. – Mesut Tasci Apr 15 '13 at 11:25
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    Meld just refuses to diff anything that has even a single byte of binary data. Useless for the PDF files I'm trying to diff. – mjaggard Jan 19 '16 at 12:02
  • What if there is no file? I just want to copy the text from clipboard. Neither supports that. They need only files. – ar2015 Oct 02 '22 at 07:14
48

If you use Vim, you can use the inbuilt diff functionality. vim -d file1 file2 takes you right into the diff screen, where you can do all sort of merge and deletes.

Zach Valenta
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Sridhar Iyer
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    The prime advantage of using an editor to 'diff' files is that you can manually edit the files in place. Additionally, VIM automatic diff folding lets you see just the differences and expand the hidden code only when you need it. – nimrodm Feb 11 '09 at 07:47
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    I quite often use this capability, although with Meld it is much easier to merge as you often can just click one of the arrows and you're there. – Alexis Wilke Dec 13 '12 at 05:46
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    This in my opinion is the best answer. Thank you sir. +1 for a solution with Vim. – rana Nov 04 '14 at 17:51
44

BeyondCompare has also just been released in a Linux version.

Not free, but the Windows version is worth every penny - I'm assuming the Linux version is the same.

moobaa
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    BeyondCompare is great IMO, better than all the integrated-with-version-control diff tools and ide-packaged or OS standard diff tools I've ever used. +1 – davenpcj Sep 22 '08 at 03:23
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    This is a great windows app, I've never used it on Linux. – Daniel Kivatinos Jun 29 '09 at 19:00
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    BeyondCompare works well on Linux and IMO is superior to meld – tonylo Jan 05 '11 at 16:40
  • Meld is nice if there are only a few changes to the file but seems to get easily confused so I tried BeyondCompare, For me in this case it did no better and I prefer Melds interface. – tempcke Jun 10 '15 at 18:37
  • Tried BeyondCompare on linux and has strange behavior. Shows conflicts when it could solve it itself. Also applying changes i strange. The lower pannel does not stay in sync with the upper ones – mhstnsc Dec 23 '15 at 13:46
29

Diffuse is also very good. It even lets you easily adjust how lines are matched up, by defining match-points.

hoijui
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    Being able to manually adjust the match points is a really great feature! – Sk606 Oct 17 '13 at 19:30
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    I just tried diffuse and it gave saner comparison results than meld on a file where a block was moved into an if statement (+1). However, you can't point diffuse at 2 directories, it's files only (-1). – w00t Apr 02 '14 at 14:18
  • the only tool (apart form `vimdiff`) that allows merging/diffing unlimited amount of files, to my knowledge. net is `kdiff3` with max 4 files. – hoijui May 07 '20 at 05:32
18

Emacs comes with Ediff.

Here is what Ediff looks like EdiffScreenshot

Mailo Světel
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kmkaplan
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  • ediff is amazing, and the integration with emacs is sweet – Alex Recarey Jul 26 '11 at 16:25
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    It's pretty hard to setup the way one likes it, and by default it looks like a Christmas tree, it isn't obvious. And that comment from an Emacs zealot. – blais Mar 30 '12 at 12:50
  • In case anyone dislike default ediff setup. ```;; don't start another frame (setq ediff-window-setup-function 'ediff-setup-windows-plain) ;; put windows side by side (setq ediff-split-window-function (quote split-window-horizontally))``` [source](http://pragmaticemacs.com/emacs/visualise-and-copy-differences-between-files/) – azzamsa Nov 01 '18 at 01:00
14

Meld and KDiff are two of the most popular.

John Millikin
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6

xxdiff is lightweight if that's what you're after.

Tarski
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    xxdiff is also equipped with features for make code reviews, and has been built from the ground up to be integrated with scripts (see, for example, "decision mode" and the accompanying Python library that comes with it, with many examples of automated invocation). It's lightweight in that it's written in C, so it runs fast, and it doesn't depend on desktop environments (written against Qt only). – blais Mar 30 '12 at 12:54
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I have used Meld once, which seemed very nice, and I may try more often. vimdiff works well, if you know vim well. Lastly I would mention I've found xxdiff does a reasonable job for a quick comparison. There are many diff programs out there which do a good job.

MattG
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Kompare is fine for diff, but I use dirdiff. Although it looks ugly, dirdiff can do 3-way merge - and you can get everything done inside the tool (both diff and merge).

Milan Babuškov
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There is DiffMerge from SourceGear. It's pretty good. Araxis Merge is one of the programs I miss from Windows. I wonder if it works under Wine ;) Might have to give it a try

Daniel
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0

Subclipse for Eclipse has an excellent graphical diff plugin if you are using SVN (subversion) source control.

thesmart
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I use Guiffy and it works well.
alt text
(source: guiffy.org)

Glorfindel
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Alex B
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    We used to Guiffy at work until we discovered several very serious issues with it. For example, on large files it may merge part of the file, then just fail, leaving a partially merged file. It had even more interesting issues as well, like graphical ">" characters becoming a part of the merge. – Mark Kegel Oct 09 '08 at 21:34
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I generally need to diff codes from subversion repositories and so far eclipse has worked really nicely for me... I use KDiff3 for other works.

prasanna
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    Just a note on KDiff3: It works well to compare files, however, the merging needs to be rewritten with a brain. Merged files are routinely not saved after saving and the workflow is somewhere between clunky and completely worthless. Save your self the countless hours of frustration and lost productivity and use ANYTHING else. – Alex Barker Dec 16 '13 at 17:56