A pair of Quick Actions to quickly compare selected files or directories from Finder on macOS (Mojave or later). This was designed to mimic the WinMerge's integration with Explorer on Windows.
- Double click on the workflow file
- 'Quick Action Installer' will ask you if you want to install the workflow
- Select 'Install'
- The Quick Action is installed and should now be visible in Finder
- Go to System Preferences > Extensions > Finder
- Right click on the Quick Action and select 'Move to Bin'
Select the files or directories, and then select the required action from Right-Click > Quick Actions. They can also be selected on the Preview pane in Finder if enabled.
There are two Quick Actions which work together:
- Select for Meld: Pre-selects the item as the first item to be compared. This is useful if you want to compare files from different directories. If an item has already been pre-selected, then this is replaced with the current item.
- Compare with Meld: Different behaviour depending on number of items selected.
- One file/directory is selected: Compares the selected item with one pre-selected with Select for Meld.
- Two files/directories are selected: Compares the two selected items. Any items pre-selected items are discarded.
A new instance of Meld.app is always opened, so you can perform multiple comparisons.
The path of a pre-selected item is stored in the text file /tmp/meld_cmp.
The items to be compared are then passed to Meld.app using the CLI.
These Quick Actions could easily be modified to work with FileMerge.app or other diff tools.