Use Meld as a Git diff tool

Meld is a great tool for files/directories comparison. Git on the other hand also provide diff command line tool, which some users may prefer too. I am going to show you how to use Meld as a git diff tool here.

Installation

Arch/Manjaro

sudo pacman -S meld

Ubuntu

sudo apt install meld

Setup and usage

Set Meld as a global git diff tool:

git config --global diff.tool meld

You can also set it up as a merge tool if you would like to be.

git config --global merge.tool meld

There are different ways to use it, one is to view files one by one by comparing two branches.

git difftool main..add-header-menu

Above method you may not find useful as viewing files one by one can be hazel.

Now let’s say you are on branch add-header-menu, to compare this branch changes with main branch using -d(--dir-diff).

git difftool -d main