Beyond Compare and TFS Problems with temporary files

[HellesAngel]

First post so hello everyone.

Microsoft TFS is driving me a bit nuts, as usual. I have Beyond Compare integrated as my compare tool for all TFS actions and generally it works well. However if I have a second copy of Beyond Compare running, even if this is nothing to do with any TFS action, then the comparison fails. For some reason TFS cannot create the temporary file it needs for the server file version.

As an example situation:
1. Right click on any file: Select Left side for compare.
2. Right click on any other file: Compare to previous file.
3. In Visual Studio Source Control Exploder right click on a file or directory that has been downloaded to the local disk and has changes. Select 'Compare'.
4. After an appropriate wait the Folder Differences appear, double click a difference to open the comparison window.
5. Beyond Compare opens but the right window is empty with the error: "Cannot open file C:\Dokumente und Einstellungen\helles.angel\Lokale Einstellungen\Temp\TFSTemp\Log;T.cpp The system cannot find the specified file". The file does not exist.

I would, as would be usual, suspect a TFS bug but the fact it works fine when no other Beyond Compare is running makes me suspicious that it's a funny interaction with the two programs. I've done a bit of Googling and found old posts about the funky ;version filenames TFS uses but nothing that matches this problem.

I'm using Visual Studio 9.0.30729.1 SP, Beyond Compare 3.1.10 (build 11626), WinXP installed in German.

Any ideas anyone? Thanks in advance.

[Chris]

Make sure you specify "bcomp.exe" as your diff and merge executable. This keeps a separate process open for each comparison.

If you use "bcompare.exe", it opens everything in a single process. This creates the problem behavior you describe if BC is already open when you launch a diff.

Instructions to configure BC as the diff and merge tool in TFS are available at the following link: http://www.scootersoftware.com/support.php?zz=kb_vcs

[HellesAngel]

Many thanks for the answer, I found it deeply buried shortly after I started the thread. Sometimes you just can't guess what's wrong...

Another small step to making TFS less unbearable

[sjb77]

In Linux ... ?

I'm having the exact same problem, except in Linux and in CLearcase (with the psuedo-MVFS that ClearCase uses on the Linux side).

The symptom is that if I hit the delta (triangle) symbol on a version tree, it successfully pulls up a BC3 window comparing the two versions. This is using the symlink of xcompare to point to bcompare. But if, while that session is still active, I hit the delta on another pair of versions, it appears that a second instance of BC3 is opened at the Home screen.

From what I can tell looking at active processes, when the first compare is initiated, BC3 sets a clearcase context (ala 'cleartool setview') and copies the first version of the file in to the /tmp folder with a name of "BC3_XXXXX" (where XXXXX is randomly generated), then changes context to the second version of the file and pulls a copy of it down to the /tmp folder as well. Then it calls the OS tool 'cat' to display the contents of the two files (which seems bizarre -- why wouldn't it open the files directly instead of using pipes??).

Anyhow, this problem is driving me NUTS and I've tried everything I can think of. I will either have to figure out some creative way to do my Linux merging from Windows, or will have to give up on BC3 and use the ClearCase merge tool xcompare. *sigh*

Any suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated. Currently using Beyond Compare 3.1.10 (build 11626). ClearCase 7.0.1.2 on RHEL 5.2.

Jim

Jim

[Aaron]

Hello,

We don't have a Clearcase server to test against in the office, but we would be interested in hearing about your configuration. We also have several clearcase users in the forum who may be able to give some insight as well.

Our Windows directions for modifying the map are available here:
http://www.scootersoftware.com/support.php?zz=kb_vcs

I also found this "man" command which may have useful information:
cleartool man type_manager

How is your map file currently configured?

Also, please try installing the latest Beta release (3.2) to see if that helps as well. It is available here:
http://www.scootersoftware.com/download.php?c=beta32

[bartix]

Still it does not work

I am using BC 3.3.7, I configured my Visual Studio 2010 exactly according to the manual. When I take a random file where I have local changes on, check it's history and compare some random two old revisions, and then I try to compare the exact same file with the Workspace or Latest Version, then BC can't find the Workspace / Latest Version in the temp files.

[Aaron]

Is this while BC3 is still open and it would launch a new tab? If you close BC3 first, then issue the next diff, does it work?

Would it be possible to post a screenshot of your settings area? There might be a small syntax error we could try to help with. The most common reason for this issue to occur is if you have bcompare.exe instead of bcomp.exe used. For VCS, you generally want to use bcomp.exe.

[bartix]

Yeah I had configured bcompare.exe. Sorry my bad didn't read carefully enough, now it works fine, thanks.

[geckotm]

I have been looking for hours for this answer .. problem solved.

THX !

Make sure you specify "bcomp.exe" as your diff and merge executable. This keeps a separate process open for each comparison.

If you use "bcompare.exe", it opens everything in a single process. This creates the problem behavior you describe if BC is already open when you launch a diff.

Instructions to configure BC as the diff and merge tool in TFS are available at the following link: http://www.scootersoftware.com/support.php?zz=kb_vcs

[rhyous]

Thanks

I didn’t notice the TFS guide (http://www.scootersoftware.com/suppo...?zz=kb_vcs#tfs) explicitly says to use this file name:

BComp.exe

The two file names are so close to the same:

BComp.exe
BCompare.exe

Since BCompare.exe had an actual Beyond Compare logo for the icon image, I naturally chose that one. Oops.

As soon as I changed my settings to use BComp.exe, the issue went away.

Thank you.