Someone at work was kind enough to figure out the correct command line switches to use in order to replace the standard TFS compare/merge tool with WinMerge. I originally blamed Pants for the info, but he then accused Eddie. Here are the goods:
In Visual Studio do the following:
- Click on Tools menu
- Click on Options menu item
- Expand Source Control tree item
- Select Visual Studio Team Foundation Server tree item
- Click on Configure User Tools... button
Comparing
To use WinMerge as the Compare/Diff tool:
- Click the Add... button
- For Extension, type *
- For Operation, select Compare
- For Command, browse for C:\Program Files\WinMerge\WinMerge.exe
- For Arguments, type /x /e /ub /wl /dl %6 /dr %7 %1 %2
- Click OK to accept
Merging
To use WinMerge as the Merge tool:
- Click the Add... button
- For Extension, type *
- For Operation, select Merge
- For Command, browse for C:\Program Files\WinMerge\WinMerge.exe
- For Arguments, type /x /e /ub /wl /dl %6 /dr %7 %1 %2 %4
- Click OK to accept
Note: You need to click on the Save button on the tool bar within WinMerge merge to commit a merge before exiting the screen
Merge Error Workaround
If you encounter an error that says "The manual merge for <filename> has been canceled", the fix is to use a batch file to redirect the call to WinMerge to ensure a 0 return code.
This problem and workaround was originally found here by a colleague. He tested WinMerge and found that it does correctly return 0. Regardless of this, this batch workaround seems to work well. I have modified the original version to include my switches.
Create a batch file with the following content:
@rem winmergeFromTFS.bat
@rem 2007-08-01
@rem File created by Paul Oliver to get Winmerge to play nicely with TFS
@rem
@rem To use, tell TFS to use this command as the merge command
@rem And then set this as your arguments:
@rem %6 %7 %1 %2 %4
"C:\Program Files\WinMerge\WinMerge.exe" /x /e /ub /wl /dl %1 /dr %2 %3 %4 %5
exit 0
The merge instructions above will then be changed to:
- Click the Add... button
- For Extension, type *
- For Operation, select Merge
- For Command, browse for C:\Program Files\WinMerge\winmergeFromTFS.bat
- For Arguments, type %6 %7 %1 %2 %4
- Click OK to accept
Modified C# Filter
WinMerge uses filter files to filter the entries found when comparing folders. The latest version of WinMerge bundles a C# filter file. I have updated it to include additional entries. Copy the content below into C:\Program Files\WinMerge\Filters\CSharp_loose.flt.
## This is a directory/file filter for WinMerge
## This filter suppresses various binaries found in Visual C# source trees
name: Visual C# loose
desc: Suppresses various binaries found in Visual C# source trees
## This is an inclusive (loose) filter
## (it lets through everything not specified)def: include
## Filters for filenames begin with f:
## Filters for directories begin with d:
## (Inline comments begin with " ##" and extend to the end of the line)
f: \.aps$ ## VC Binary version of resource file, for quick loading
f: \.bsc$ ## VC Browser database
f: \.dll$ ## Windows DLL
f: \.exe$ ## Windows executable
f: \.obj$ ## VC object module file
f: \.pdb$ ## VC program database file (debugging symbolic information)
f: \.res$ ## VC compiled resources file (output of RC [resource compiler])
f: \.suo$ ## VC options file (binary)
f: \.cache$ ## ??
f: \.resource$ ## Compiled resource file.
f: \.xfrm ## ??
f: \.bak$ ## backup
f: \.vssscc$ ## Source control metadata
f: \.vspscc$ ## Project source control metadata
f: \.user$ ## User settings
f: \.ReSharper$ ## ReSharper data
d: \\bin$ ## Build directory
d: \\obj$ ## Object directory
d: \\cvs$ ## CVS control directory
d: \\.svn$ ## Subversion control directory
Updated:
After checking out James Manning's blog post about compare/merge tools (thanks Grant), I have updated the command line arguments. For the most part, it is a merge of the switches in this original post and James' switches. The /x /e switches give the tool the same behaviour as the TFS tool for using the ESC key and identifying identical files. James' has include the use of the /ub /dl /dr switches to avoid MRU persistence and adds version labels to the left and right sides. I have also added /wl so that the left (server) side file is read-only.
If you want to know more about the WinMerge switches, you can get the online help from here.
Updated:
As suggested by Scott Munro, I have removed %3 from the merge switches, but I have still retained the /wl switch.
Updated:
Added TFS error workaround and my version of the C# filter.
Updated:
Added a reg file that contains the original settings outlined above (does not include workaround).
WinMerge for TFS.reg (1.12 kb)
Tags: great tools, TFS, ReSharper, Switch