Compare and Merge operations

Compare operations allow you to compare two or more contributors. Merge operations allow you to compare differences and merge differences from the contributor versions to an output version.

The compare/merge tools let you compare two or more files, directories, or versions, by graphically representing the differences between them. Each file, directory, or version considered for a comparison or merge is called a contributor. Typically, contributors are multiple versions of the same HCL VersionVault file or directory element. The compare or merge operation selects one of the contributors to be the base contributor, which is the contributor against which all other contributors are compared when reporting differences. If you are merging, the operation also specifies a to-version contributor, which is the location where the merged output is stored.

A difference is an area in the contributor panes that represents a difference between the base contributor and at least one of the other contributors. A merge point is an area in the merge results pane that corresponds to a resolved or unresolved difference between contributors in the contributor panes.

Each difference and merge point has a special visual marker in the contributor panes. Difference markers indicate the type of difference (for example, whether something has been deleted, changed, moved, added, and so on). The current difference is highlighted in each contributor pane by using a separate marker. Merge point markers indicate whether the merge point has been resolved and whether it is the current merge point. You can specify character properties and color differences in the Compare/Merge preferences page to further highlight differences and merge points.

You can use the Compare/Merge preferences page to associate specific tools with file or directory types. For each specified type, the associated tool is invoked whenever a compare or merge operation is started. For all non-specified types, the default tool is started. You can set the default tool to be any of the tools listed above.