KDiff3
118 likes
KDiff3 is a file and directory diff and merge tool.
Cost / License
- Free
- Open Source
Application types
Platforms
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- Flathub
- KDE Plasma
Features
- No registration required
- 3 way merge
- Side-by-Side Comparison
- Text Wrapping
- Folder Comparison
- Hex Viewer
- File Comparison
Tags
- merging
KDiff3 News & Activities
Highlights All activities
Recent News
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Share a News TipRecent activities
- Alaik updated KDiff3
- nabbisen added KDiff3 as alternative to ForskScope
- RemovedUser added KDiff3 as alternative to ForskScope
- miracles liked KDiff3
K0RR added KDiff3 as alternative to Diffchecker
POX added KDiff3 as alternative to Pretty Diff- braky updated KDiff3
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What is KDiff3?
KDiff3 is a file and directory diff and merge tool which
- compares and merges two or three text input files or directories,
- shows the differences line by line and character by character(!),
- provides an automatic merge-facility,
- has an editor for comfortable solving of merge-conflicts,
- provides network transparency via KIO,
- has options to highlight or hide changes in white-space or comments,
- supports Unicode, UTF-8 and other file encodings,
- prints differences,
- supports version control keyword and history merging.
History
KDiff3 was originally authored and maintained by Joachim Eibl through 2014. Then in 2018, it was ported to KF5/Qt5 by Michael Reeves, and actively maintained since.
Website: https://invent.kde.org/sdk/kdiff3 Documentation: https://docs.kde.org/stable5/en/kdiff3/kdiff3/ Binary downloads (Linux/Win/Mac): https://download.kde.org/stable/kdiff3/




Comments and Reviews
I was really happy to discover that KDiff3 was resurrected in 2018 after being unmaintained since 2014. While my favorite recursive dir/file comparison tool is WinMerge, that is Windows only.
KDiff3 was the next best option for Linux/Mac. It works quite well for comparing recursive dirs/files for large backups. You can do a quick compare (size only) or a full binary compare.
Potential malware. Downloaded and ran the installer, which had TWO separate screens trying to get you to install other software (PUPs), using a very scummy practice of moving the button to continue the installation to the other side of the installer and placing the button to accept the installation of this additional software where the mouse is, so if you click through quickly you'll end up accidentally installing it. As if that wasn't bad enough. after the install, it didn't run, it's not in the start menu, and it's not in add/remove programs, so not sure what it did, but based on their clearly poor ethics, it's very suspicious. And on top of all that, it opens a website (Softsonic), which I HATE when software does that, and the website says the software is out-of-date, so they're taking you to a website, without your permission, that they're clearly not even looking at. This whole software, and the team associated with it, is a joke and should be blocked by AVs.
https://download.kde.org/stable/kdiff3/?C=M;O=D 12/24 The installation doesn't run on my Win10 This program seemed fast at comparing in the past, but didn't have a menu tool to shift elements left or right. Perhaps this shines for long file comparison in speed. Perhaps there are other special features that I'm not seeing.
Simple and effective, if a bit outdated visually.
Official Website is for Linux installer only ... https://kde.org/applications/development/org.kde.kdiff3 ... not a hint of Windows anywhere. Latest Linux appears to be v1.8 (Feb-2020) https://cgit.kde.org/kdiff3.git
Windows version is older v0.9.98 (2014-07-04) on http://kdiff3.sourceforge.net/ _Softpedia have Windows version too https://www.softpedia.com/get/Office-tools/Text-editors/KDiff3.shtml_
Those are all outdated links. You can get the URL for Linux/Win/Mac binary downloads from the README https://invent.kde.org/sdk/kdiff3
[https://invent.kde.org/sdk/kdiff3 Readme Quote]: Binaries can be downloaded at https://download.kde.org/stable/kdiff3/?C=M;O=D
Much faster than Meld on Windows, good for working with SVN
I have two CSV files that only differ in the date format: YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS vs. M/D/YYYY HH:MM.
KDiff3 takes 25 seconds to compare these files and freezes. Bug filed at https://sourceforge.net/p/kdiff3/bugs/217/.
At least the authors of Kdiff don't go around spamming review sites with their shilling.