- Select two files in the IDE.
- Right-click and choose Tools > Diff
from the pop-up menu to run the diff command.
By default, the graphical two-paned diff viewer displays the two files
side by side with the differences highlighted.
- To change between the graphical diff viewer and the textual diff viewer,
use the Visualizer combo box:
- Graphical Diff Viewer. (Default) The graphical diff viewer uses
background highlight colors to display the differences between the two
files. By default, changed lines are highlighted in blue, added lines
are highlighted in green, and removed lines are highlighted in red.
- Textual Diff Viewer. The textual diff viewer shows you the diff
output in text so that you can copy and paste the output into a file or
into an email.
Each time you change a setting in the Visualizer combo box, the diff command
runs again with the new setting.
- To change between the built-in diff engine and the command-line diff engine,
use the Engine combo box:
- Built-in Diff Engine. (Default) The built-in diff engine enables
you to compare two files without your needing a command-line diff executable
installed on your system.
- Command-line Diff Engine. Before you can use the command-line
diff engine on a Microsoft Windows system, you must have a command-line
diff executable (for example, from a Cygwin distribution) installed on
your system. For the UNIX® environment, there is a diff
executable installed and available to you by default.
Each time you change a setting in the Engine combo box, the diff command
runs again with the new setting.