Best Diff Tool For Mac Os X

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DiffPDF can compare two PDF files. It offers three comparison modes: Words, Characters, and Appearance. By default the comparison is of the words on each pair of pages, but comparing character by character is also supported (e.g., for logographic languages). And there's also support for comparing the pages by appearance (for example, if a diagram is changed or if a paragraph is reformatted, or a font changed). It is also possible to compare particular pages or page ranges. For example, if there are two versions of a PDF file, one with pages 1-12 and the other with pages 1-13 because of an extra page having been added as page 4, they can be compared by specifying two page ranges, 1-12 for the first and 1-3, 5-13 for the second. This will make DiffPDF compare pages in the pairs (1, 1), (2, 2), (3, 3), (4, 5), (5, 6), and so on, to (12, 13). Version 1.5.0 added the ability to save a PDF file that shows the pages that differ with their differences highlighted. Version 2.0.0 added support for margin exclusion and improved dock window handling. Version 2.1.0 added support for drag and drop, bug fixes, and French and German translations.

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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

votes

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.


votes

FileMerge is bundled with XCode, but I prefer Kaleidoscope which is not free.

Jason Salaz
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nucnuc
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votes

I use Kaleidoscope. Or just plain, old diff from the CLI

ryanprayogoryanprayogo
votes

It is not great, but the FileMerge bundled with the OS can be launched from the command line as opendiff a.txt b.txt.

ThiloThilo
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votes
nthonygreennthonygreen
votes

You can use diff if you're using the command-line.

gentmatt
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HarvHarv
votes

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 Greenstein
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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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kenorbkenorb
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votes

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
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

  1. Web based, so it is compatible
  2. Mobile friendly
  3. Save comparison up to 6 months
  4. Share comparison via URL
  5. It is free!
MattMatt
votes

Mac Os X 10.8 Download

vim also has built-in support for side-by-side diff -

Here is a page describing vim diff mode in detail -

Mac Os X 10.11 Download

HarmeetHarmeet

Itool For Mac

votes

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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