Using MATLAB comparison as an external diff tool

I am using Git and SourceTree for source control. How can I use MATLAB comparison tool as an external diff tool there? How should I change the .gitconfig or set the required command in SourceTree diff option?

[Henning S Larsen]

Can't this be done?

Answer 1

[Steven Lord]

As of release R2016b you can use the instruction on this page in the documentation to configure an external source control tool to use the MATLAB Comparison Tool to diff and merge code.

[TS]

Please expand on this answer since following the linked guide and adding the following to "Arguements" in Sourcetree -> Options -> Diff -> External Diff -> Costum (Diff Command is the path of "comparisons.ExternalSCMLink.setup()"):

$BASE $LOCAL

generates the error:

MATLAB encountered a problem receiving a comparision request from an external source control tool. Try again.
Details:
Path\AppData\Local\Temp\mwDiffLinkServer*.log

Using Matlab 2018a + Sourcetree 2.4.8.0

[Steven Lord]

Please send the log file to Technical Support and work with them to determine why MATLAB has encountered a problem. You can contact Support using the Contact Us link in the upper-right corner of this page.

[TS]

When using $LOCAL $REMOTE instead of $BASE $LOCAL$ as arugment, the call to the comparision tool succeeds

https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Sourcetree-questions/SourceTree-external-diff-tool/qaq-p/35047

[David Barry]

@TS I am having the exact same problem as you but swapping to %LOCAL %REMOTE doesn't seem to solve it for me. I have attached a screenshot showing my config options from SourceTree. Can you please just confirm this is exactly what you entered to fix the issue?

Regards David

[David Barry]

In case anybody else is having this issue, the solution is to set the arguments to $LOCAL $PWD/$REMOTE

Answer 2

[Jan]

You can call the built-in comparison tool, buit it is not documented and will be subject to changes. What is the desired output?

In Matlab R2016b:

file1 = which('plot.m')
file2 = which('diff.m')
html = comparisons_private('textdiff', file1, file2);
web(['text://', html])

Look into the source of comparisons_private.m to see more options.

You can find out these methods by starting the profiler and select the "Compare" menu in the editor. Afterwards profile report tells you, which functions are called. As far as I can see, this is not a reverse engineering of Matlab and therefore it is legal.

Answer 3

[Rebecca Nakhoul]

To customize source control tools to use MATLAB for Diff and Merge, follow the steps described in the MATLAB documentation.

It covers source control tools such as SourceTree Git, Tortoise SVN and Perforce P4V.