How Do I Use Beyond Compare: Introduction to Beyon
  • Forty things about Beyond Compare
  • Acknowledgements
  • Learn Beyond Compare in 5 Minutes
    • Quickstart: open two directories
    • Quickstart: open two files
    • Quickstart: move a file
    • Text Compare: understand the display
    • Downloads
  • Text Compare
    • How to use Beyond Compare for Text Compare
    • In Beyond Compare, what are unimportant differences?
    • Why no word-wrap ??
    • How to use Beyond Compare to confirm 100% replacement
    • Ignore Trivial Differences, Like Timestamps
  • Git
    • How to use Beyond Compare with Git
    • Do a roll-back to peek at your old code
    • Quickstart: Folder Merge
    • Why merge three folders?
    • Beyond Compare Three-Way Folder Merge Symbols Explained
    • How to compare two commits, both old, in Git
    • Git mergetool: merging three files.
    • How to recover an older version of your code with Git and Beyond Compare
    • Peeking under the hood at how Git does its thing
    • Getting better at Git
    • Find changes since last commit
    • Patches
    • How to configure Visual Studio to use Beyond Compare for Version Control
  • Scripts and the Command Line
    • How to use Beyond Compare in the Terminal
    • How to do an automatic backup every day
    • Write a Batch File That Will Start Several Syncs Simultaneously
    • Write a batch file that will start several text compares automatically
    • TL; DR
  • Table Compare
    • Quickstart: open a couple of Excel spreadsheets
    • Example: finding missing items in a pair of spreadsheets
    • Keys
    • Mismatched Columns
    • Longer example, opening .csv files
    • How to remove columns from a spreadsheet
    • Aligned vs Unaligned
    • Example: List of City Trees
  • Sync / Folders
    • Backup your entire computer (Part One)
    • Backup your entire computer (Part Two)
    • Backup, advanced
    • RegEx Examples: Filename Alignment Overide
    • Scan a lot or a little
  • Other
    • Peek
    • Binary
    • Undo
    • Colors
    • How to compare images
    • Report: Text Compare
    • Report: Table Compare
    • Looooonnnnngggg lines...
    • Binary: How to see the 1's and 0's
    • How to write your first script
    • How to find redundant or duplicate files
    • Minor Edge Cases
    • Shortcut Key
    • How to ignore parts of your file
    • Folder System Context Menus
    • About Evan Genest
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  1. Git

Why merge three folders?

If you have data in two places and want to bring it together, BC can let you visually merge everything. A special case is different versions in a version control system, like Git.

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Last updated 6 years ago

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The only three way folder feature in Beyond Compare is FolderMerge (FolderCompare is limited to two folders).

The center folder has a specific purpose: BC assumes it is authoritative and ancestral to the other two folders. When there is a conflict, BC uses this precedence and some simple logic rules to make assumptions on which things you want to keep during the merge. If you know Git, this is some of how Git handles merge conflicts.

To get started with a three way merge, drag your three folders with the mouse into two or three panes.

Please note that you cannot edit in the top three panes! You are only supposed to be pressing arrow buttons: "take the left line", "take another left line", "take the middle line". Typing? No! Just pressing arrows.

Also note: this feature is not available in Beyond Compare Standard Edition.

Why is there there a (optional) middle folder? If we put a third folder in the middle we are defining it as the old musty, deprecated directory and other two as living newer directories. That way, if we get confused during our merge, we can get clarity by knowing this: the more any folders or files resemble the musty directory, the less desirable they are. Distance from this directory becomes a good thing in choosing what to keep during the merge.

In a workflow like the one shown above, we would be trying to merge 4 and 5 to make 6. When automatically evaluating what to keep, Beyond Compare will deprecate things in 4 or 5 if they resemble 1. Why? Because resembling 1 is a sign that you are old and outmoded.

Instructions: