Clone of kdiff3 public repository http://sourceforge.net/p/kdiff3/code/ci/master/tree/kdiff3/

Author: Joachim Eibl (joachim.eibl at gmx.de) Copyright: (C) 2002-2012 by Joachim Eibl KDiff3-Version: 0.9.97

KDiff3 runs best on KDE but can be built without it, depending only on Qt-libs. These are available for Un*x, Windows, Mac. Thus there are many setup possibilities to consider.

From version 0.9.94 on the main target platform is KDE4/Qt4. For KDiff3 for KDE3/Qt3 use KDiff3-0.9.92 or older.

• Introduction
• License
• Requirements & Installation
  • For KDE4
  • With Qt4-libs, without KDE
    • for Linux/Un*x
    • for Windows
    • Debugging with MinGW under Windows:
    • for Mac: Building KDiff3 for Mac OSX (with Intel processor) as a universal binary
    • Creating and installing translation messages
• Additional hints

KDiff3 is a program that

• compares and merges two or three input files or directories,
• shows the differences line by line and character by character (!),
• provides an automatic merge-facility and
• an integrated editor for comfortable solving of merge-conflicts
• has support for KDE-KIO (ftp, sftp, http, fish, smb),
• has an intuitive graphical user interface,
• provides a context menu for KDE-Konqueror and Windows-Explorer,
• supports 64 bit systems. (Some build issues are discussed in here.)

Do you want help translating? Read the README in the po-subdirectory!

GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE, Version 2, June 1991
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Steet, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02111-1307
USA

For details see file "COPYING".

• for KDE4: From version 0.9.94 on KDiff3 supports KDE4. For installation on most distributions you usually also need these packages (names as on opensuse):

  • g++ (g++, version 3.4 or newer)
  • libqt4-devel (Qt4-libs, version 4.4.0 or newer)
  • libkde4-devel (KDE4 Header files and development libraries)
  • libkonq-devel (optional, needed for the kdiff3-plugin, if not installed then the contextmenu plugin for konqueror won't be built.)
  • cmake (>2.6, checks dependencies and creates the appropriate Makefiles for your system)

  Typically in a terminal (e.g. konsole) you cd into the kdiff3-directory and run ./configure kde4. This script is essentially the same as these commands:

  mkdir releaseKde
  cd releaseKde
  # Find out your KDE4-directory and note the result
  kde4-config --prefix
  # create Makefile, replace <KDE4-prefix> with the prior result
  cmake .. -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=<KDE4-prefix>
  # run make (compile and link)
  make
  # install as root user
  sudo make install
  

  Now KDiff3 should be ready to use. Type kdiff3 to start it. There should also be a entry in your KDE-start menu in "(Applications->)Development".

  For creating a debug version:

  mkdir debug
  cd debug
  # Find out your KDE4-directory and note the result
  kde4-config --prefix
  cmake .. -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=<KDE4-prefix> -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=debugfull
  make
  sudo make install
  

  The <KDE4-prefix> depends on your distribution: The command kde4-config --prefix should tell you.

  • For opensuse 11 use /usr.

• Building KDiff3 with Qt4-libs, but without KDE

  • for Linux/Un*x
  • for Windows
  • for Mac

  The version 0.9.97 requires Qt 4.4.0 or newer (from http://qt-project.org/) for compilation.

  You always need: - kdiff3-0.9.97.tar.gz - for Un*x: gcc, g++ with version >=3.4.2 Qt-X11-libraries - for Windows: Qt-win-libs If you have the Qt4 commercial edition, then compile with Visual Studio.NET 2003 or newer. If you use the Qt4 open source edition, then you'll need MinGW. I verified that compilation and debugging works with these packages (probably newer ones will also work): - Use MinGW-5.1.4.exe or newer to install the following or newer: - gcc-core-3.4.5-20060117-1.tar.gz - binutils-2.17.50-20060824-1.tar.gz - gcc-g++-3.4.5-20060117-1.tar.gz - mingw-runtime-3.14.tar.gz - mingw32-make-3.81-2.tar.gz - w32api-3.11.tar.gz - gdb-6.3-2.exe (for debugging) - for Mac: gcc, g++ with version >=3.4.2 Qt-Mac-libraries - Optional: Qt Creator IDE: Development environment optimized for Qt (from http://qt-project.org)

  Build-instructions (Un*x): Assuming Qt is correctly installed run "./configure qt4" which essentially does the same as:

  • mkdir releaseQt
  • cd releaseQt
  • qmake ../src-QT4/kdiff3.pro
  • make (or gmake for GNU-Make)

  Build-instructions (Windows):

  • If you use Qt Creator from the SDK just load the src-QT4\kdiff3.pro file and build. On the command line (cmd.exe):
  • set QTDIR=<QT4-dir> e.g.: c:\qt\4.4.1 set "PATH=%QTDIR%\bin;%PATH%
  • Prepare compiler settings: For Visual Studio run the respective vsvars32.bat For MinGW add the path: E.g. set PATH=c:\mingw\bin;%PATH%
  • cd into the directory kdiff3-0.9.97\src-Qt4 and type
  • qmake kdiff3.pro
  • Either nmake for Visual Studio or mingw32-make depending on what you have.

  Debugging with MinGW under Windows:

  • Qt Creator worked very well as debugger frontend too!
  • Debugging without gdb on the console:
    • The qt-win-opensource-4.4.1-mingw.exe only installs release dlls. You will have to compile the debug dlls yourself. Enter the qt-4.4.1-directory and run configure -debug and then mingw32-make.
    • cd into the directory kdiff3-0.9.97\src-Qt4
    • edit the file Makefile.Debug and in the LFLAGS replace -Wl,-subsystem,windows with -Wl,-subsystem,console (this is necessary so that gdb can send a break signal to the running program)
    • mingw32-make debug (create a debuggable executable)
    • gdb debug\kdiff3.exe
    • At the "(gdb)"-prompt type run and enter to start.
    • While the program runs you can't set breakpoints, first interrupt it with Ctrl-C.
    • Use help to find out about how to use gdb. (Important commands: run, break, backtrace, print, quit) Using break with c++-methods requires to specify the parameter types too. Breakpoints in constructors might not work.

  Building KDiff3 (Qt4) for Mac OSX: 0) Build with Qt Creator from the SDK and src-QT4\kdiff3.pro. Building a universal binary (by Michael Schmidt, perhaps outdated):

  1. Install Qt/Mac 4.x with thread support, static libraries and universal flag. (For Qt4 run "configure -static"; only necessary if the final binary should not require shared Qt4-libs.)
  2. cd .../kdiff3-0.9.97/src-QT4 3a) Create a makefile for kdiff3 by executing: qmake kdiff3.pro 3b) optionally generate XCode-Project (for debugging purposes only) by executing: qmake -spec macx-xcode kdiff3.pro
  3. Execute: make
  4. After the build completes copy kdiff3 from the kdiff3-0.9.97/src-QT4 directory to: /Applications

  Creating and installing the translation messages The po directory contains translations from the KDE-translation teams. If you use the Qt-only-version of KDiff3, then the installation described above won't install translations automatically. To create and install the translations:

  1. cd .../kdiff3-0.9.97/po
  2. sh create_qm_files install (asks for a super user password) Just to create the files in the po directory (as needed for the windows version):
  3. sh create_qm_files local

Start from commandline:

• Comparing 2 files: kdiff3 file1 file2
• Merging 2 files: kdiff3 file1 file2 -o outputfile
• Comparing 3 files: kdiff3 file1 file2 file3
• Merging 3 files: kdiff3 file1 file2 file3 -o outputfile Note that file1 will be treated as base of file2 and file3.

If all files have the same name but are in different directories, you can reduce typework by specifying the filename only for the first file. E.g.:

• Comparing 3 files: kdiff3 dir1/filename dir2 dir3 (This also works in the open-dialog.)

If you start without arguments, then a dialog will appear where you can select your files via a filebrowser.

For more documentation, see the help-menu or the subdirectory doc.

Have fun!