MELD(1)

✨ MELD — the meld(1) manual page, but make it cute ✨

okay so bestie, you're in the General Commands Manual section, page MELD(1), and I'm about to make you obsessed with a diff tool. buckle up 🎀

🌸 NAME 🌸

meld — visual diff and merge tool for the GNOME Desktop. that's it, that's the whole name section, she's concise 💅

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

meld [options]
meld [options] FILE1
meld [options] DIR1
meld [options] FILE1 FILE2 [FILE3]
meld [options] DIR1 DIR2 [DIR3]

look at her. flexible. iconic. no cap. ✨

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

Meld is a graphical diff viewer and merge application for the GNOME desktop. she's not a terminal gremlin (respect to the terminal gremlins tho 🫶), she's a whole GUI situation.

here's the tea on what she supports:

• 2 and 3-file diffs — yes queen, three-way
• recursive directory diffs — she goes deep
• diffing of directories under version control, and the list of systems she plays nice with is: Bazaar, CVS, Darcs, Fossil, Git, Mercurial, Monotone 👑
• the ability to manually and automatically merge file differences

literally the full package. main character energy fr fr 🌈

✨ OPTIONS ✨

• --auto-compare, -a — automatically compare all differing files on startup. she does the work so you don't have to, slay.
• --auto-merge — automatically merge files. auto. merge. no thoughts, just merging.
• --comparison-file=<file> — load a saved comparison from a Meld comparison file. your lil saved vibe, restored.
• --diff FILE1|DIR1 FILE2|DIR2 [FILE3|DIR3] — create a diff tab for the given files or directories. now listen, important detail: meld --diff FILE1 FILE2 is functionally equivalent to meld FILE1 FILE2. however — and this is the part people miss 🙈 — the --diff argument can be given multiple times for one invocation of meld, which lets the user automatically initiate multiple diffs when meld starts. see the examples below, bestie, I got you.
• --help, -h — print application help and usage. when in doubt, ask her 💜
• --label=<label>, -L <label> — set application window title to <label>. name her whatever you want, she's YOUR window title now.
• --newtab, -n — open the comparison as a new tab in an already-running instance. no new window, just a cute new tab 🌸
• --output, -o — sets the save path for the middle buffer in a three-pane merge view. this is useful for loading the middle buffer from one file and saving it to another, for example in use as a version control merge helper. very nerdy, very useful, ate.
• --unified, -u — ignored for compatibility. she's just there to keep the peace, an icon honestly 💀
• --version — print application version and exit. quick lil peek and she's gone.

🎀 EXAMPLES 🎀

• meld — run meld without initiating a diff. just vibes, no comparison. a blank canvas 🦋
• meld FILE1 — initiate a diff between FILE1 and the version-controlled copy of FILE1.
• meld DIR1 — initiate a recursive diff between DIR1 and the version-controlled copy of DIR1.
• meld FILE1 FILE2 — initiate a diff between FILE1 and FILE2.
• meld FILE1 FILE2 FILE3 — initiate a 3-way diff between FILE1, FILE2, and FILE3. the triple threat 💅
• meld DIR1 DIR2 — initiate a recursive diff between directory DIR1 and DIR2.
• meld DIR1 DIR2 DIR3 — initiate a recursive 3-way diff between directory DIR1, DIR2, and DIR3.
• meld --diff FILE1 FILE2 --diff FILE3 FILE4 — initiate a diff between FILE1 and FILE2, and a separate diff between FILE3 and FILE4. see?? multiple --diff flags!! I told you!! 🔥

💀 BUGS 💀

if you find a bug — and bestie, it happens, she's software — please report it at https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/meld/issues or mail a description of the issue to meld-list@gnome.org. do NOT suffer in silence, the devs wanna hear about it, fr fr 🫶

👑 AUTHORS 👑

see the AUTHORS text file in meld's source code (http://git.gnome.org/browse/meld/tree/AUTHORS). all the legends listed right there, go give them their flowers 🌸

and that's the whole page bestie!! 💖 this one's dated 26 Sept 2010 and lives in the MELD(1) corner of the manual, so if you ever forget, just know: past-me wrote it down, future-you is grateful, and meld stays iconic. periodt. 🎀✨🦋