Question

I have a configuration file that I consider to be my “base” configuration. I’d like to compare up to 10 other configuration files against that single base file. I’m looking for a report where each file is compared against the base file.

I’ve been looking at diff and sdiff, but they don’t completely offer what I am looking for.

I’ve considered diff’ing the base against each file individually, but my problem then become merging those into a report. Ideally, if the same line is missing in all 10 config files (when compared to the base config), I’d like that reported in an easy to visualize manner.

Notice that some rows are missing in several of the config files (when compared individually to the base). I’d like to be able to put those on the same line (as above).

Note, the screenshot above is simply a mockup, and not an actual application.

I’ve looked at using some Delphi controls for this and writing my own (I have Delphi 2007), but if there is a program that already does this, I’d prefer it.

The Delphi controls I’ve looked at are TDiff, and the TrmDiff* components included in rmcontrols.

Answer 1

For people that are still wondering how to do this, diffuse is the closest answer, it does N-way merge by way of displaying all files and doing three way merge among neighboors.