# gitk external diff on Windows 3 messages from 2022-03-02 to 2022-03-04. Participants: Phillip Susi, Erik Cervin Edin. Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/57497 ## Phillip Susi, 2022-03-02 16:27 Subject: gitk external diff on Windows Message-ID: <87fso0qphj.fsf@vps.thesusis.net> URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/87fso0qphj.fsf%40vps.thesusis.net ``` I'm running git version 2.28.0.windows.1 on Windows and trying to set it up to run winmerge as the external diff tool. I am pretty sure I used to do this following the instructions here: https://igorsgames.wordpress.com/2015/05/28/using-winmerge-as-an-external-diff-tool-in-gitk/ When I point gitk to the batch file and try to open the external diff tool, nothing happens. Winmerge does not open, nor do I get an error from gitk. I noticed the next box below on the preferences screen contains "cmd /c" so I tried prefixing the path to the batch file with that, and instead I get an error that says: cmd /c C:/Program Files/WinMerge/winmerge.bat: command failed: couldn't execute "cmd \c C:\Program Files\WinMerge\winmerge.bat": no such file or directory. Why does nothing happen in the first case, and why in the second case is gitk apparently changing regular slashes into back-slashes before trying to pass the string directly to CreateProcess as the name of the executable binary, rather than to a shell or ShellExecute or something? Also I just tried having the batch file echo something to a text file to see if it was running at all or if winmerge just isn't opening, and the text file ( full path to my home directory to make sure permissions aren't a problem ) isn't created, so the batch file isn't executing even though there is no error given by gitk. ``` ## Erik Cervin Edin, 2022-03-04 08:37 Subject: Re: gitk external diff on Windows Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/CA%2BJQ7M8SF2cmZ7jagH-VdrZeR9Kfcw0GV%3DA1fpDeDubwJS1B8g%40mail.gmail.com In-Reply-To: <87fso0qphj.fsf@vps.thesusis.net> ``` On Wed, Mar 2, 2022 at 11:32 PM Phillip Susi wrote: > > I'm running git version 2.28.0.windows.1 on Windows and trying to set it > up to run winmerge as the external diff tool. This is really a Git for Windows specific issue and more appropriately asked here https://groups.google.com/g/git-for-windows But I'll give a quick response here. > contains "cmd /c" so I tried prefixing the path to the batch file with > that, and instead I get an error that says: > > cmd /c C:/Program Files/WinMerge/winmerge.bat: command failed: couldn't > execute "cmd \c C:\Program Files\WinMerge\winmerge.bat": no such file or > directory. I'm guessing you're running this from git bash, in which case try cmd //c C:/Program Files/WinMerge/winmerge.bat See https://stackoverflow.com/a/21907301 Basically a song and dance has to be done to work with Windows quirks. If you're still having issues, it's best to follow up in the Git for Windows discussion group https://groups.google.com/g/git-for-windows ``` ## Phillip Susi, 2022-03-04 20:50 Subject: Re: gitk external diff on Windows Message-ID: <877d99bfwp.fsf@vps.thesusis.net> URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/877d99bfwp.fsf%40vps.thesusis.net In-Reply-To: ``` Erik Cervin Edin writes: > I'm guessing you're running this from git bash, in which case try > cmd //c C:/Program Files/WinMerge/winmerge.bat > See > https://stackoverflow.com/a/21907301 > > Basically a song and dance has to be done to work with Windows quirks. > > If you're still having issues, it's best to follow up in the Git for > Windows discussion group > https://groups.google.com/g/git-for-windows Nope, that didn't help. I guess I'll try there. ```