Usability: skip git difftool confirmation prompt and/or enable multi-tab opening

[barney]

Using Beyond Compare as difftool is currently very clunky because for each file to diff, I need to confirm that I want to launch Beyond Compare, then close the process, sequentially. Is there any way to make use of the same Beyond Compare instance and open the diffs in tabs? If not, can I at least configure my setup to stop prompting me for confirmation for every diff?

[Aaron]

Hello,

The best workaround is probably to use Git difftool --dir-diff. This would launch the current folder in the Folder Compare, showing all different files, which you can then navigate and click between using the BC4 Folder Compare interface.

Git controls the confirmation per diff; I'm not familiar with an option to suppress this, but if Git has or adds one we could use it. Since we are passed one pair at a time in this scenario, we need to close each time to then get the next pair of files. Researching and enhancing this is on our wishlist, but is not entirely under our control.

[barney]

Thanks for your reply Aaron,

The best workaround is probably to use Git difftool --dir-diff.

This is fantastic - pretty much what I was after (of course, I have to manually expand any folder hierarchy to reveal files, but this i

Git controls the confirmation per diff; I'm not familiar with an option to suppress this, but if Git has or adds one we could use it. Since we are passed one pair at a time in this scenario, we need to close each time to then get the next pair of files. Researching and enhancing this is on our wishlist, but is not entirely under our control.

I see — it's all about Git config and protocol. I'll have a look and post back if I find anything. Thanks again for your help.

[Aaron]

Hello,

To help with expanding folders, we have an Expand All and Collapse All button set on the Toolbar. You can also right click a Folder and Open Subfolders to expand it and all subfolders within. You can then also use Display Filters or Next Difference commands to hop around items in any expanded folder.

[barney]

Thanks again for the usability tips.

Git does allow you to configure suppression of the confirmation per-diffed file:

git config --global --add difftool.prompt false

The caveat is that a large number of diffed files will result in a long sequence of closing BC, reopening BC, etc for each (this assumes that the above is significantly worse than having to hit n repeatedly during default behaviour — you can always interrupt the process by hitting Ctrl+C on the terminal, regardless).

All in all, this config change is still useful for single file diffs. For broad diffs I will stick to Aaron's suggestion of performing diff by folder and opening that:

git difftool --dir-diff

Consider me sorted.