mergers 0.4.2

A visual diff and merge tool for files and directories
mergers-0.4.2 is not a library.
Visit the last successful build: mergers-0.8.1

mergers

workflow status security audit

A visual diff and merge tool written in Rust with GTK4, inspired by Meld.

WARNING: This software is alpha-quality and under active development. It may eat your files, corrupt your data, or silently discard changes. Always keep backups and use version control. You have been warned.

Features

  • Two-way file comparison with syntax highlighting (GtkSourceView 5)
  • Three-way merge for resolving conflicts
  • Directory comparison with recursive scanning and async background diffing
  • Git integration — run mergers . to view uncommitted changes
  • Inline word-level diff highlighting
  • Ignore whitespace / blank lines options
  • Find & Replace within panes
  • Go to line (Ctrl+L)
  • Undo / Redo
  • Chunk navigation with keyboard shortcuts
  • Chunk map — visual overview strips alongside each pane
  • Patch export (unified diff format)
  • Swap panes
  • Custom pane labels via -L flag
  • Directory copy/delete operations
  • File watcher — auto-reloads when files change on disk
  • Configurable folder filters (exclude patterns like node_modules, .git, etc.)
  • Preferences dialog — font, color scheme, tab width, filters, with live preview
  • Binary file detection — prevents loading binary files into text buffers

Installation

macOS (Homebrew)

brew install joske/mergers/mergers

This downloads a pre-built binary (apple silicon - on intel it will build from source) and pulls in GTK4 and GtkSourceView 5 automatically.

Linux (Arch)

mergers is in the AUR, use your AUR helper of choice:

yay -S mergers

Linux (AppImage)

Download the latest AppImage from GitHub Releases:

chmod +x mergers-x86_64.AppImage
./mergers-x86_64.AppImage

Windows (x86_64 & aarch64)

Download the latest build from GitHub Releases:

From crates.io

Requires GTK4 and GtkSourceView 5 development libraries (see Building).

cargo install mergers

From source

See Building below.

Usage

# Compare two files
mergers file1.txt file2.txt

# Compare two directories
mergers dir1/ dir2/

# Three-way merge (left, merged, right)
mergers local.txt merged.txt remote.txt

# View uncommitted git changes
mergers .

# Custom labels
mergers file1.txt file2.txt -L "Original" -L "Modified"

Git Mergetool

To use mergers as your git merge tool:

git config merge.tool mergers
git config mergetool.mergers.cmd 'mergers "$LOCAL" "$MERGED" "$REMOTE"'
git config mergetool.mergers.trustExitCode true

Then resolve conflicts with:

git mergetool

Comparison with Similar Tools

Feature mergers Meld Diffuse
File Comparison 2-way, 3-way 2-way, 3-way N-way (arbitrary)
Directory Comparison Yes Yes No
VCS Integration Git Git, Hg, Bzr, CVS, SVN Git, Hg, Bzr, CVS, SVN, Darcs, Monotone, RCS
Syntax Highlighting Yes (GtkSourceView 5) Yes (GtkSourceView) Yes
Word-level Diffs Yes Yes No
Inline Editing Yes Yes Yes
Manual Line Alignment No No Yes
Undo/Redo Yes Yes Unlimited undo
Find & Replace Yes Yes Yes
Go to Line Yes No No
Patch Export Yes No No
Ignore Whitespace Yes Yes No
Ignore Blank Lines Yes Yes No
Text Wrapping Options Yes Yes No
File Monitoring / Auto-reload Yes Yes No
Chunk Map (minimap) Yes Yes No
Conflict Marker Detection Yes No No
Folder Filters Yes Yes N/A
Git Mergetool Support Yes Yes Yes
Custom Pane Labels Yes Yes Yes
Toolkit GTK4 GTK3 GTK3
Language Rust Python Python
License GPL-2.0 GPL-2.0 GPL-2.0

Building

Requires GTK4 and GtkSourceView 5 development libraries.

# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt install libgtk-4-dev libgtksourceview-5-dev

# Fedora
sudo dnf install gtk4-devel gtksourceview5-devel

# Arch
sudo pacman -S gtk4 gtksourceview5

# macOS
brew install gtk4 gtksourceview5

# Build
cargo build --release

License

GPL-2.0