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WinMerge

Open-source data software

Image credit is listed at the end of this article.

WinMerge is a free software tool for data comparison and merging of text-like files. It is useful for determining what has changed between versions, and then merging changes between versions.

WinMerge runs on Microsoft Windows.

01Features

  • Visual differencing and merging of text files
  • Flexible editor with syntax highlighting, line numbers, and word-wrap
  • Handles DOS, Unix, and Mac text file formats
  • Unicode support (as of version 2.8.0, UTF-8 files are correctly read without a BOM)
  • Difference pane shows current difference in two vertical panes
  • Location pane shows map of files compared
  • Highlights differences inside lines in file compare
  • Can also generate HTML report with differences highlighted
  • Regular expression-based file filters in directory compare allow excluding and including items
  • Moved lines detection in file compare
  • Ability to ignore whitespace and letter case changes
  • Creates patch files
  • Shell integration (supports 64-bit Windows versions)
  • Rudimentary Visual SourceSafe and IBM DevOps Code ClearCase integration
  • Archive file support using 7-Zip
  • Plug-ins
  • Language localization via plain-text PO files
  • Online manual and installed HTML help manual
  • Generates normal, context, and unified patches.

02Codebases and forks

WinMerge 2011 (discontinued)
Developerjtuc
ReleaseDecember 3, 2011 (2011-12-03)
Preview release2011.009.217 / May 26, 2019 (2019-05-26)
Written inC++
Operating systemMicrosoft Windows
Available inMultilingual
TypeData comparison
LicenseGPL
Websitebitbucket.org/jtuc/winmerge2011
Repositorybitbucket.org/jtuc/winmerge2011
WinMerge 2011
Developerdatadiode
ReleaseDecember 3, 2011 (2011-12-03)
Preview release0.2011.211.170 / June 5, 2021 (2021-06-05)
Written inC++
Operating systemMicrosoft Windows
Available inMultilingual
TypeData comparison
LicenseGPL
Websitegithub.com/datadiode/winmerge2011
Repositorygithub.com/datadiode/winmerge2011

For a planned development of version 3.x no commits have been made to the 3.0 codebase since 2011.

In 2011 a fork of the 2.x codebase titled "WinMerge 2011" was created. This new branch has continued to see active feature and bug fix development. It has also removed ATL/MFC dependencies so that WinMerge can be built using the free Visual C++ Express editions.

Watch videos about WinMergeExplainers and documentaries on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article WinMerge, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

Images, from Wikimedia Commons:

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