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Associate a file type with a file-comparison tool

  • Article

You can compare text files by using the default file-comparison tool integrated with Visual Studio, the Diff window. However, you can, for file types that you specify, enable the file-comparison tool that you prefer to use. You can use any comparison tool that supports, as command-line arguments, the full paths of the two files that you want to compare.

Required Permissions

To perform this procedure, you must be a member of the Administrators or Users security group on the computer where Visual Studio is installed. For more information, see Permission reference for Team Foundation Server.

To associate a file type with a third-party compare tool

  1. Perform either of the following sets of steps.

    1. In Visual Studio, on the menu bar, choose Tools, Options.

    2. In the Options dialog box, expand Source Control, choose Visual Studio Team Foundation Server, and then choose Configure User Tools.

    --or--

    1. In Windows, choose Start, All Programs, Microsoft Visual Studio 2012, Visual Studio Tools, Developer Command Prompt .

    2. Type tf diff /configure.

  2. In the Configure User Tools dialog box, choose Add.

    The Configure Tool dialog box appears.

  3. In the Extension box, specify the extension (for example, .cpp) that you want to associate with your tool.

    Tip

    Specify .* if you want to associate all types of files with your tool.

  4. In the Operation list, choose Compare.

  5. In the Command box, either type the path and name of your tool, or choose the ellipses (…) to locate and specify it. The result should resemble the following example:

    C:\Program Files\OtherDiff\otherdiff.exe

  6. In the Arguments box, type any arguments that your tool requires:

    • %1: The path to the source file.

    • %2: The path to the target file.

    • %5: The options that the user specified by using the /option option of the Difference command. For more information, see Difference Command.

    • %6: Label ("friendly name") of the source file.

    • %7: Label ("friendly name") of the target file.

    Tip

    For information about frequently used external tools and the arguments that they require, see the following page on the Microsoft website: diff/merge configuration in Team Foundation - common Command and Argument values.

    Use white space to delimit the arguments.

    For example, you might specify the following syntax to compare two files:

    %1 %2

    Use quotation marks to pass white space or quotation marks to the tool.

    If an argument includes one or more spaces, you must enclose it in quotation marks (""). If an argument contains one or more quotation marks, you must add another quotation mark immediately after any quotation mark in the argument. For example, you could specify the following argument:

    "This "" embeds a double quote"

    Pass labels ("friendly names") to the tool.

    If your tool supports displaying a label (a "friendly name"), such as c:\workspace\test\MyWindow.xaml.cs;C5 (server) 4/26/2010 1:32 PM, you can include the %6 and %7 tokens to pass label values to the tool. If you do not specify these tokens, the tool may show names of temporary files, which can be difficult to read.

    For example, you might specify the following syntax to display labels.

    %1 /title1=%6 %2 /title2=%7

    Note

    This capability is not related to version-control labels, which you apply to specific versions of items in version control, as described in Use labels to take a snapshot of your files.

  7. In the Configure Tool dialog box, choose OK.

  8. If you want to specify more types of files, repeat steps 4−9.

  9. In the Configure User Tools dialog box, choose OK.