Configuring SourceTree for Windows to use Ultracompare
Asked by Andrew:

Hello. I just installed SourceTree Beta for Windows. I would very much like to configure it to use Ultracompare as an external diff and merge tool. I have seen the previous post where instructions are provided for MAC:

<https://answers.atlassian.com/questions/115937/how-do-i-configure-sourcetree-to-use-ultracompare-for-diff-and-merge-on-my-mac>  
Can someone please tell me if the same instructions are applicable for Windows 7? I also have UltraEdit Studios installed and apparently the Ultracompare executable can only be run from within UEStudio. Here is the location I found for the ultracompare executable that UEStudio calls:  
C:\\Program Files (x86)\\IDM Computer Solutions\\UEStudio\\ucl.exe  
Once I set this up in SourceTree clicking on the "External Diff" button does nothing. I would like to know first what the correct setup is for enablement of Ultracompare with SourceTree and secondly if a stand-alone version of Ultracompare is required in order to run this as an external diff tool.  
Thank you in advance.


Answers:
author: Andrew
body: Hi Steve. Thanks so much for your response. From my research it seems conclusive that I cannot launch the ucl.exe as a standalone outside of UEStudio. I would have to license a copy of Ultracompare separately. I installed DiffMerge since I saw this as being supported "out of the box". This solution works great and it also works perfectly with Visual Studio so I am going to stick with this solutions instead of trying to make Ultracompare work. I also think the integration of Ultracompare with Visual Studios is likely to be problematic. Thanks again for your response.


author: Lyman Horne
body: Try the following:

External Diff Tool: Custom

Diff Command: uc.exe

Arguments: -B -b -t $REMOTE $LOCAL

External Merge Tool: Custom

Diff Command: uc.exe

Arguements: -B -b -t $REMOTE $LOCAL -rom $MERGED

You will need to put UltraCompare in your environment path.


author: Philippe Lhoste
body: SourceTree for Windows looks very professional and well finished, but it is lacking on the help side... I found out the [knowledge base](https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/SOURCETREEKB/SourceTree+Knowledge+Base+Home), but currently the Windows part is empty... There is no help file nor link, except to this site. The software is rather intuitive, but I am stuck on a related topic, so here is my question...

In the settings, I see I can choose some popular external diff / merge tools in the settings. I suppose the path and the arguments are predefined for these.

So I chose WinMerge for the diff tool (used to it, doing well the job) and P4Merge for the merge tool (I use it at work, good tool). So far, so good. Of course, I have both installed on my system (and some more!).

But if I try to call the external diff tool, by the button on the diff window, by the contextual menu or the main menu, etc., I just get no action and no message... The action is just ignored.

I can guess the program is expecting the tools to be in the path, but they aren't, and I don't want to add them to my already crowded path. Beside, it is not that intuitive to newbies, a population you want to seduce. :-) I suppose I can set up the tools as "Custom", but then it defeats the point of these predefined entries. Perhaps the application could guess the path from the registry or something. Or just can offer a button to browse to the exe, which is probably the most sensble solution.

Side notes / remarks:

- This textarea (yes, in Answers) is awful, as it masks the browser's spell check... Beside, the tooltips on the buttons above it are not set, we see only the default property...

- Back to SourceTree, the Delete / Remove icon is not intuitive. I understand it is complementary of the Add one (red vs. green, minus vs. plus) but it is too reminiscent of the "[no entry](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-way_traffic)" sign. A more classical icon is a X red cross, I think.

- Apparently you use the "reverse" word on buttons around the diff, with perhaps the meaning of "revert". I find the "reverse" word usage a bit disturbing / confusing... (particularly "Reverse Selected Lines": put them in reverse order?)

These remarks aims to help you to improve the tool, I find it already quite nice. Thanks for giving it. :-)

comments: author: stevestreeting
body: I just spotted a little bug sneaked into the 1.0 release, and that if your tool was located in a path which had a space in it, it wouldn't correctly propagate to the .gitconfig which is why it wouldn't work. You don't have to have your tools on the path. This will be fixed in the next update!


author: stevestreeting
body: It may be that ucl.exe needs some parameters, the Mac version needs '$LOCAL' and '$REMOTE' so perhaps the windows version does too? The setup approach is the same as the Mac version though, minus any difference in executables.


Tags: diff

windows