vimdiff and MacVim

Question

I'd like to run vimdiff on MacVim. Is there an easy way I'd be able to do it?

Answer 1

• From the terminal

If you have the mvim script installed (it is in the dmg, just put it somewhere in your PATH), you can just type in a shell:

mvim -d file1 file2

You can alias this to mvimdiff if you like.

• From within macvim

In macvim, like in vim , you can also use:

:e file1
:diffsplit file2
or
:vert diffsplit file2

The second option gives you a vertical diff, which is usually more readable

Answer 2

If you symlink gvimdiff to mvim then mvim will start with -d etc. Vim and Mvim both look at what executable name they've been started with to determine how they behave. That how gvim and vim can be both the same executable on linux and it's the same on OSX.

Answer 3

This worked for me on mac. I am using MacVim snapshot 72:

 /Applications/MacVim.app/Contents/MacOS/Vim -d -g path_to_file1 path_to_file2

It works exactly like gvimdiff on windows.

Update: It even works with 3 files. This command will split the screen 3-ways and let you do a 3-way diff in macvim:

 /Applications/MacVim.app/Contents/MacOS/Vim -d -g path_to_file1 path_to_file2 path_to_file3

Answer 4

Ok. I have kindof answered my own comment:

To diff two open buffers in vim, open them vertically, and select the first and type :diffthis then the second one and type :diffthis again.

This works for more than two buffers too =)