codinghints: Visual Studio, TFS and WinMerge

WinMerge is a great and handy tool for comparing and merging source code and other textual file types within a team development environment.

I use it since a few years and therefore I also want to use it with VS2010 and TFS and it’s very simple.

Just go through

Tools > Options > Source Control > Visual Studio Team Foundation Server > Hit <Configure Tools>

Here you can setup custom tools for comparing and merging.

Add a new tool and provide the installation path to WinMerge and some command line arguments like (explanation follows):

Hit <OK> and do the same with merge.

Command line switches for WinMerge are (copied from the WinMerge documentation):

/r compares all files in all subfolders (recursive compare).
/e enables you to close WinMerge with a single Esc key press.
/f applies a specified filter to restrict the comparison. The filter can be a filemask or the name of a file filter
/x closes WinMerge (after displaying an information dialog) when you start a comparison of identical files.
/s limits WinMerge windows to a single instance.
/ul prevents WinMerge from adding the left path to the Most Recently Used (MRU) list.
/ur prevents WinMerge from adding the right path to the Most Recently Used (MRU) list.
/u prevents WinMerge from adding either path (left or right) to the Most Recently Used (MRU) list.
/wl opens the left side as read-only.
/wr opens the right side as read-only.
/minimize starts WinMerge as a minimized window.
/maximize starts WinMerge as a maximized window.
/dl specifies a description in the left side title bar, overriding the default folder or filename text.
/dr specifies a description in the right side title bar, just like /dl.
leftpath specifies the folder, file or project file to open on the left side.
rightpath specifies the folder, file or project file to open on the right side.
outputpath Specifies an optional output folder where you want merged result files to be saved.
conflictfile Specifies a conflict file, typically generated by a Version control system.

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