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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-11T20:06:53+00:00

scmdiff marks the differences between the checked in version of a file and the

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scmdiff marks the differences between the checked in version of a file and the file that’s being edited. It marks it by coloring the changed lines. Is there any way to view the changes using a vimdiff-style split instead of just coloring the changed lines?

For instance, if abc is a file under version control, then I can use the following to display the current version of abc on one side and the latest version on the other side:

tkdiff abc

I can also do:

tkdiff -r1 -r5 abc

to show the differences between versions 1 and 5. Finally, I can do:

tkdiff -r1 abc

to see the difference between the current version and version 1.

This is the sort of diff I’d like to see between two versions of a file, only using Vim. Can it be done? I’m working under Linux and I use Bitkeeper for version control.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    I use the vcscommand plugin for interacting with a VCS.

    From the description:

    VIM 7 plugin useful for manipulating files controlled by CVS, SVN, SVK and git within VIM, including committing changes and performing diffs using the vimdiff system.

    In particular :VCSVimDiff will split the current window and show a “vimdiff” against the latest version in the repo. You can also specify one revision number to compare the current buffer to (i.e. :VCSVimDiff -2), or two revision numbers to diff to each other. Here is the relevant section from the docs:

    :VCSVimDiff

    Uses vimdiff to display differences between versions of the current
    file.

    If no revision is specified, the most recent version of the file on
    the current branch is used. With one argument, that argument is used
    as the revision as above. With two arguments, the differences between
    the two revisions is displayed using vimdiff.

    With either zero or one argument, the original buffer is used to perform
    the vimdiff. When the scratch buffer is closed, the original buffer
    will be returned to normal mode.

    Once vimdiff mode is started using the above methods, additional vimdiff
    buffers may be added by passing a single version argument to the
    command. There may be up to 4 vimdiff buffers total.

    Using the 2-argument form of the command resets the vimdiff to only those 2
    versions. Additionally, invoking the command on a different file will
    close the previous vimdiff buffers.

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