WinMerge is a

free software Free software or libre software is computer software distributed under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, and distribute it and any adapted versions. Free software is a matter of liberty, no ...

tool for

data comparison In computing, file comparison is the calculation and display of the differences and similarities between data objects, typically text files such as source code. The methods, implementations, and results are typically called a diff, after the Un ...

and

merging Merge, merging, or merger may refer to: Concepts * Merge (traffic), the reduction of the number of lanes on a road * Merge (linguistics), a basic syntactic operation in generative syntax in the Minimalist Program * Merger (politics), the comb ...

of text-like files. It is useful for determining what has changed between versions, and then merging changes between versions. For a planned development of version 3.x no commits have been made to the 3.0 codebase since 2011. In 2011 a

fork In cutlery or kitchenware, a fork (from la, furca 'pitchfork') is a utensil, now usually made of metal, whose long handle terminates in a head that branches into several narrow and often slightly curved tines with which one can spear foods ei ...

of the 2.x codebase titled "WinMerge 2011" was created. This new branch has continued to see active feature and bug fix development. It has also removed ATL/ MFC dependencies so that WinMerge can be built using the free Visual C++ Express editions. WinMerge runs on

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

Features

* Visual differencing and merging of text files * Flexible editor with

syntax highlighting Syntax highlighting is a feature of text editors that are used for programming, scripting, or markup languages, such as HTML. The feature displays text, especially source code, in different colours and fonts according to the category of terms ...

, line numbers, and word-wrap * Handles DOS, Unix, and Mac text file formats *

Unicode Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology Technical standard, standard for the consistent character encoding, encoding, representation, and handling of Character (computing), text expre ...

support (as of version 2.8.0, UTF-8 files are correctly read without a BOM) * Difference pane shows current difference in two vertical panes * Location pane shows map of files compared * Highlights differences inside lines in file compare * Can also generate HTML report with differences highlighted *

Regular expression A regular expression (shortened as regex or regexp; sometimes referred to as rational expression) is a sequence of characters that specifies a search pattern in text. Usually such patterns are used by string-searching algorithms for "find" or ...

-based file filters in directory compare allow excluding and including items * Moved lines detection in file compare * Ability to ignore whitespace and letter case changes * Creates

patch Patch or Patches may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Patch Johnson, a fictional character from ''Days of Our Lives'' * Patch (''My Little Pony''), a toy * "Patches" (Dickey Lee song), 1962 * "Patches" (Chairmen of the Board song) ...

files * Shell integration (supports 64-bit Windows versions) * Rudimentary

Visual SourceSafe Microsoft Visual SourceSafe (VSS) is a discontinued source control program oriented towards small software development projects. Like most source control systems, SourceSafe creates a ''virtual library'' of computer files. While most commonly used ...

and

Rational ClearCase Rational ClearCase is a family of computer software tools that supports software configuration management (SCM) of source code and other software development assets. It also supports design-data management of electronic design artifacts, thus ena ...

integration * Archive file support using

7-Zip 7-Zip is a free and open-source file archiver, a utility used to place groups of files within compressed containers known as "archives". It is developed by Igor Pavlov and was first released in 1999. 7-Zip has its own archive format called 7z, ...

* Plug-ins * Language localization via plain-text PO files * Onlin
manual
and installed

HTML help Microsoft Compiled HTML Help is a Microsoft proprietary online help format, consisting of a collection of HTML pages, an index and other navigation tools. The files are compressed and deployed in a binary format with the extension .CHM, for Comp ...

manual * Generates normal, context, and unified patches.

References

External links

* *
Compare and merge files and folders with WinMerge

Lifehacker ''Lifehacker'' is a weblog about life hacks and software that launched on January 31, 2005. The site was originally launched by Gawker Media and is currently owned by G/O Media. The blog posts cover a wide range of topics including: Microsoft W ...

WinMerge Portable

Sdottaka's WinMerge on BitBucket
an
on GitHub
(a fork with additional features and Japanese language support) (gone)
WinMerge 2011 on BitBucket
an
on GitHub
(a{{As of, 2017, 4, alt=n active{{sup,

017 Seventeen or 17 may refer to: *17 (number), the natural number following 16 and preceding 18 * one of the years 17 BC, AD 17, 1917, 2017 Literature Magazines * ''Seventeen'' (American magazine), an American magazine * ''Seventeen'' (Japanese ...

} fork with additional features) (gone) File comparison tools Free file comparison tools Free software programmed in C++ Windows-only free software

Features

See also

References

External links