BComp.exe vs BComp.com

[Michael Bulgrien]

I know its been mentioned before, but not sure where to find it.
Please describe the difference between BComp.exe & BComp.com and their intended use. Thanks.

[Zoë]

"BCompare.exe" is the main application and only one copy will run at a time, regardless of how many windows you have open. If you launch a second copy it will tell the existing copy to start a comparison and exit immediately.

"BComp" is a launcher program what will launch a BC comparison and wait for the comparison result before exiting. Use them anywhere where you need that behavior (version control merges, batch files, etc).

"BComp.exe" is a Win32 GUI program. If launched from a version control system it should work just fine. If launched from a console window the console (or batch file) will not wait for it.

"BComp.com" is a Win32 console program. It has to have a console; if you launch it from one (or a batch file) that console will wait for the comparison to complete before returning. If you launch it from a version control system interactively, it will show a console window while it's waiting.

Generally you should just use "bcomp" and let Windows figure out which to use. If you have to include an extension you should generally use BComp.exe. If it doesn't matter whether it waits, you can continue using BCompare.exe.

[Michael Bulgrien]

Thank you.

[bushed]

bump

Am I missing something or it is still not implemented?

As far as I can tell this becomes more of an issue since there is a native git command for folder comparison: "difftool dir-diff" that deletes temp dirs as soon as difftool returns.

[cubiq4]

In Beyond Compare 4 the bcomp.exe behaviour differs from version 3. In 4 if launching bcomp.exe from a batch file it will wait. If however from the command line it won't wait.

Is this intentional?

[Aaron]

Hello,

This behavior is similar between BC3 and BC4. To wait on the command line, you want to use bcomp.com instead of bcomp.exe.

[cubiq4]

I'm telling you that this isn't the case in my testing.

I'd like to launch Beyond Compare 4 from a batch file without waiting. The documentation at the top of this thread says

'"BComp.exe" is a Win32 GUI program. If launched from a version control system it should work just fine. If launched from a console window the console (or batch file) will not wait for it.'

But in my testing this is not the case, from a batch file it WILL wait, but as described here and the behaviour I want is for it NOT to wait. This is true for version 3.

[Aaron]

Hello,

The quick solution is to use bcomp.com which is designed to wait on the command line and will work in this scenario.

As for your testing case, that shouldn't be the case and would be considered a bug. Which version of BC3 are you running? What is the exact method you are using to launch it? Are you running the Windows "Command Prompt", then typing in the command line? Or running from a specific type of script?

The main difference between bcomp.exe and bcomp.com is for one to wait when called from version control and one to wait on the command line. If both waited on the command line, there'd be little to differentiate these two methods.