P4MERGE how to see only difference from base and Conflicts Diff

Question

I have a lot of files to merge and looking for some help to fasten the process. Presently I am using a P4MERGE tool.If you look into the image which I have uploaded there are 267 changes which are common changes, 1 conflicts and 7 (6+1) changes different from the base. The only thing I am interested is in looking into 'conflicts' and 'differences from base' diff and not a 'common to both' one. Is there any setting in the tool so that I change it to show me only conflicts and difference changes and not common changes.

Hope I am clear explaining my problem.

Thanks, Ajit

Answer 1

There is not a setting in the P4Merge tool for this, although when you're navigating the diffs there's a button to skip to the next conflict since those are usually the most interesting diffs.

Note that "common to both" diffs are still different from the base (just not different from each other, i.e. the same base-relative diff is made on both the left and right).

A large number of "common to both" diffs may be an indication that you're not getting the closest possible merge base, which could have a wide array of causes (old version of the software and/or baroque merging workflow). I'd recommend following up on that with Perforce technical support or their forums.

Answer 2

In addition to Sam's answer (my reputation is still to low to add a comment to his answer):

What might help a bit is to choose Additional Actions > Diff > Source vs. Target. This will help you to locate the interesting diffs more easily, although it opens in a separate window, and not directly in the merge environment.

There are other diff choices as well.