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Published 20 hours ago • verified publisher icon WinMerge

"Auto Merge" function undocumented

Open Chealer opened this issue 2 years ago • 6 comments

WinMerge 2.16.32.0's Merge menu contains an "Auto Merge" entry ("Fusion automatique" in French) towards the end. I do not know what it does since I didn't manage to use it, but it should be documented, in particular since it has no tooltip clarifying.

Unfortunately, I looked in the manual's Comparing and merging text files section and tried to look elsewhere in the manual, and the only reference I could see was an indication of its keyboard shortcut (no description nor explanation of how to use it).

Chealer avatar Oct 22 '23 11:10 Chealer

Unfortunately, the "Auto Merge" feature is not documented as you say. (I don't really like the current functionality, so it may be fixed later) "Auto Merge" will be available after comparing the three files. "Auto Merge" is a function that performs a three-way merge. (See Three-way merge at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merge_(version_control))

Note that WinMerge's Auto Merge is very specific and behaves differently depending on the pane that currently has focus.

https://github.com/WinMerge/winmerge/discussions/1156#discussioncomment-2029750

sdottaka avatar Oct 23 '23 10:10 sdottaka

Thank you very much @sdottaka So if I understand correctly, Auto Merge can only compare files?

Chealer avatar Oct 23 '23 11:10 Chealer

So if I understand correctly, Auto Merge can only compare files?

Auto Merge does more than simply compare files. It is a feature that, given three files, treats one as the original file and the other two as modifications made by different individuals, merging their changes into one file.

sdottaka avatar Oct 24 '23 12:10 sdottaka

Thanks and sorry @sdottaka What I meant to ask is if it can only operate on files, not text which is pasted directly in WinMerge?

Chealer avatar Oct 24 '23 17:10 Chealer

I forget the reason, but if there are any unsaved panes that have been changed, Auto Merge will be disabled. Therefore, even if you paste text into the window displayed using File → New (3 panes) → Text menu item, Auto Merge will not be activated immediately, and you will need to save it as a file.

sdottaka avatar Oct 24 '23 22:10 sdottaka

Thank you @sdottaka So if I understand correctly, to solve a conflict via copy-paste, I need to save the 3 versions into 3 files.

Chealer avatar Oct 24 '23 22:10 Chealer