Comparing Files from Other Applications

You can use the File Comparator plugin from other applications such as Tortoise Hg or Tortoise SVN. Use the supplied fcremote.exe utility to start Sally if it is not already running, and to open a new File Comparator window with two specified files to compare.

To compare files specified by another application:

1. Navigate to the File Comparator plugin's directory, e.g., C:\Program Files\Sally\plugins\filecomp.
2. Locate the fcremote.exe utility.
3. Use the Copy Path + Name as Text command (Alt+Insert key) on fcremote.exe to copy its full path and name to the clipboard.
4. Paste the full path and name of fcremote.exe into the application and provide it with two file paths as parameters. If you need fcremote.exe to wait for the File Comparator window to close (some applications use this as a signal to remove temporary copies of compared files), use the -w option before the two file paths.

Example: Using File Comparator plugin with Tortoise Hg:

1. Open your mercurial.ini file in a text editor. You can do this from the Tortoise Hg Settings dialog by clicking the Edit File button.
2. Find the [tortoisehg] section and add the line:
   vdiff = MySalDiff
3. Find the [merge-tools] section and add the lines:
   MySalDiff.executable=C:\Program Files\Sally\plugins\filecomp\fcremote.exe
   MySalDiff.diffargs=-w $parent $child

See Also

Comparing Files