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Command Line Tool

Kaleidoscope comes with a command-line tool, called ksdiff, which you can use to open files from the command-line or from a script.

Installation

Before you can use ksdiff, you need to install it from the Integration window. To install ksdiff:

  1. Choose Kaleidoscope > Integration... from the main menu
  2. Go to the "Command Line Tool" section
  3. Follow the instructions

Starting a Comparison with ksdiff

Examples:

If you give ksdiff a set of paths as arguments, it will launch Kaleidoscope if it isn't open yet, and then create a new tab with those documents. If you supply more than 2 files as arguments, Kaleidoscope will open the File Shelf and display all the files.

Waiting Before Exiting

ksdiff -w file1 file2\

If you use ksdiff in a script, it might be preferable to have ksdiff open until the comparison it started closes. This way you can remove temporary files you created after the comparison is done, or do some other action after you're sure the user has seen the comparison. This can be done with the -w or --wait command line switch.

To learn more about the ksdiff command line tool, run ksdiff --help to get an overview of its options:

usage: ksdiff - send files to Kaleidoscope
  --version                             show version information and exit
  -h, --help                            show this help message and exit

COMMON COMMAND OPTIONS
  [-w, --wait | -W, --no-wait]          whether to wait for the document to be
                                        closed in Kaleidoscope before exiting
                                        the implied default varies per command
  [-l, --label LABEL]                   use LABEL as the visible label for the
                                        tab in Kaleidoscope, instead of the
                                        default value, which is inferred from
                                        the arguments passed to ksdiff’s parent
                                        process

FILE OPTIONS
  [-s, --snapshot | -S, --no-snapshot]  whether the file is temporary. this
                                        option will override the heuristics
                                        ksdiff would otherwise use to determine
                                        this state.

COMMANDS
 [--diff]              send files to open  ----------------------------( diff )--
                                        default if no other command given
                                        implies --no-wait

    FILE [opt] [...]                    the files to diff, '-' represents stdin
                                        stdin will be prepended to the file list
                                        if no '-' is provided.


 --partial-changeset   send part of a changeset  ---------( partial-changeset )--
                                        implies --no-wait

    [--UUID UUID]                       use UUID to select which document to
                                        add this changeset item to; follow this
                                        with --mark-changeset-as-closed UUID
                                        to tell Kaleidoscope that no more
                                        changes are expected. if unspecified,
                                        Kaleidoscope will watch the process
                                        calling ksdiff and close the changeset
                                        when it exits.
    [--relative-path PATH]              use PATH to describe the filename and
                                        location for this changeset item within
                                        its root (e.g. a source repository)
    FILE [opts] FILE [opts]             the files to diff

 --mark-changeset-as-closed UUID        marks the partial changeset submitted
                                        under the given UUID as being closed


 --changeset           send a complete changeset   ---------------( changeset )--
                                        implies --no-wait
    --filelist                          begin a file list (changeset item)
      [--relative-path PATH]            use PATH to describe the filename and
                                        location for this changeset item within
                                        its root (e.g. a source repository)
      FILE [opts] FILE [opts]           the files to diff


 --merge               send a merge   -------------------------------( merge )--
                                        implies --wait
    --output OUTPUT                     use OUTPUT as the destination path for
                                        this merge. creates OUTPUT if it does
                                        not exist.
    [--base BASE]                       use BASE as the base content for this
                                        merge. can improve the quality of the
                                        default selections for some merges.
    FILE [opts] FILE [opts]             the files to merge