17th May 2018, 1 min read

Using Scooter Software Beyond Compare

Beyond Compare is a graphical file comparison tool sold by Scooter Software. Its open-source competitors are mainly vimdiff, and kdiff3. Its advantage is ease-of-use. While comparing files they can be edited instantly. You can diff complete directory trees.

It is written in Delphi Object Pascal, the source code is not open-source. It runs on Windows, x86 Linux, and OS X. It does not run on ARM, like Raspberry Pi or Odroid, see support for arm processors - like the raspberry pi. The "Standard Edition" costs $30, the "Pro Edition" costs $60. The software is in AUR.

1. Root User Problem. When using it as root-user you must use:

export QT_GRAPHICSSYSTEM=native
bcompare

When running

DIFFPROG=bcompare pacdiff

the screen looks like this:

2. Git Usage. To use Beyond Compare with git difftool you have to do two things: First you must create an alias bc3 for bcompare.

[root /bin]# ln -s bcompare bc3

Second add the following lines to your ~/.gitconfig file:

[diff]
        tool = bc3
[difftool]
        prompt = false
        bc3 = trustExitCode
[merge]
        tool = bc3
[mergetool]
        bc3 = trustExitCode

Alternatively to above changes in the ~/.gitconfig file, use the following commands:

git config --global diff.tool bc3
git config --global difftool.bc3.trustExitCode true
git config --global merge.tool bc3
git config --global mergetool.bc3.trustExitCode true

3. Command-line usage. To compare two output lists generated from two commands:

bcompare <(ldd /bin/gedit|sort) <(ldd /bin/geany|sort) &