Compare Helper

Compare files or folders via configured external tools.

Features

Extension adds a new submenu Compare (External)

• Compare

  Compares selected items with the configured default tool.

• Compare With...

  Shows a tool selection GUI and compares selected items with the chosen tool. Tools are filtered by item's kind.

  

Remote Development support

• Remote Text files

  Comparison is possible, changes made by external tools are synced back with editor.

• Remote Image files

  Comparison is possible, but changes are ignored. Further releases will feature an option to transfer changed images back to the original remote location.

• Remote Folders

  Comparison is not possible.

Requirements

Extension is fully dependent upon installed external tools. Configure them as needed in the Extension's Settings.

Extension Settings

This extension contributes the following settings:

• compareHelper.defaultExternalTools: default tools to use

  For example:

  "compareHelper.defaultExternalTools": {
      "folders": "FreeFileSync",
      "images": "p4merge",
      "text": "bbdiff"
  }
  

  Property	Type	Optional	Default	Description
  folders	string	✔	''	Default tool for folders
  images	string	✔	''	Default tool for images
  text	string	✔	''	Default tool for text

  Use the value of the tool's name property.

• compareHelper.externalTools: external tools configuration

  For example:

  "compareHelper.externalTools": [
      {
          "name": "bbdiff",
          "path": "bbdiff",
          "args": [
              "--text-files-only",
              "${FOLDER_ITEM_1}",
              "${FOLDER_ITEM_2}"
          ],
          "compares": [
              "text",
              "folders"
          ]
      },
      {
          "name": "p4merge",
          "path": "/Applications/p4merge.app/Contents/MacOS/p4merge",
          "args": [
              "${FOLDER_ITEM_1}", // base / left
              "${FOLDER_ITEM_2}", // left / right
              "${FOLDER_ITEM_3}", // right
              "${FOLDER_ITEM_4}"  // merge
          ],
          "compares": [
              "text",
              "images"
          ]
      }
  ]
  

  Property	Type	Optional	Default	Description
  name	string			Used in GUI and as ID for default settings. Must be a unique value
  path	string			Absolute or relative path to the executable
  args	(string | args)[]	✔	SPECIAL	See Args bellow
  compares	string[]	✔	['folders', 'images', 'text']	Specifies what kind of items a tool can handle. Allowed values: "folders", "images", "text"

  Args

  When args array is empty or missing all selected items are used as args, one item per argument.

  The following template ${FOLDER_ITEM_n} where n ≥ 1 can be used to refer to the selected item. Items are in click order.

  An entire arg is ignored when template refers to an item out of range.

  For example:

  [
      "${FOLDER_ITEM_1}", // base / left
      "${FOLDER_ITEM_2}", // left / right
      "${FOLDER_ITEM_3}", // right
      "${FOLDER_ITEM_4}"  // merge
  ]
  

  With only two selected items args will be ["path/to/item/1", "path/to/item/2"]

  Nested Args

  Arguments could be nested. An entire nested arg and all its children is ignored when template refers to an item out of range.

  For example:

  [
      "${FOLDER_ITEM_1}",     // base / left
      "${FOLDER_ITEM_2}",     // left / right
      "${FOLDER_ITEM_3}",     // right
      [
          "--out",
          "${FOLDER_ITEM_4}", // Output file
          [
              "-L", "Label for Base",
              "-L", "Label for Left",
              "-L", "Label for Right",
          ]
      ]
  ]
  

  With only two selected items args will be ["path/to/item/1", "path/to/item/2"]

  With four selected items args will be flatten to:

  [
      "path/to/item/1",
      "path/to/item/2",
      "path/to/item/3",
      "--out",
      "path/to/item/4",
      "-L",
      "Label for Base",
      "-L",
      "Label for Left",
      "-L",
      "Label for Right",
  ]
  

Example configurations:

• Windows
• OS X

Known Issues

• Keybindings

  Triggering Compare, Compare With... commands via keybindings doesn't work.

  Due to API limitation, current selection in Explorer view is passed to command only if such command is triggered via context menu.

• Remote Development

  • Remote Image files

    Comparison is possible, but changes are ignored. Further releases will feature an option to transfer changed images back to the original remote location.

  • Remote Folders

    Comparison is not possible.

Latest Version

1.1.1

Fixed

• Compatibility issue with snap version of VS Code 1.78.0

See CHANGELOG.md for complete release notes.

Acknowledgements

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