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Labview merge tool for sourcetree 3.0

Peter Granum

I am having issues with setting up labview merge and compare tools as external tools in sourcetree 3.0. The documentation I found was for pre 3.0 versions. It should be possible to set up an externel merge tool by clicking tools > options > diff ? I can then set the path to the relevant VI's, but I am not sure this is the right approach? At least it does not seem to work.

Peter

Accepted answers

UPWT

I found that NI is providing a LabVIEW based solution to the LV Compare and LV Merge tool arguments issue. They have provided the LabVIEW code in a GIT repository. I just downloaded it and followed the instructions for building the EXEs, distributions and installer on my system and change the Sourcetree Diff and Merge callouts as specified.

I plan to try out the previous steps I implemented changing code in two local repos that point to the same remote repo, simulating two developers working on the same VI and committing/pushing in order to generate a conflict and then seeing if the tools will work as specified to leverage the Compare and Merge tools.

Here is the link to the GIT repository provided by NI: https://github.com/smithed/vicompare

All comments

Mike Corsaro

Hello! There was a bug in custom diff tools recently that caused this to not work quite right (you can find the fixed version here)

After updating, you should be able to try the following:

"External Merge Tool" set to "Custom"

"Merge Command:" set to:

PATH TO 'LVMerge.exe' goes here

"Arguments" set to:

\"$BASE\" \"$LOCAL\" \"$REMOTE\" \"$MERGED\"

Peter Granum

Hi Mike

Thanks for your reply! It seems to be more right now. However, it is not quite working yet. I have made a change to a file called "xxx.vi". In the "file status" tab I hightlight the file at hit ctrl+d to launch the external diff tool. Labview compare then launches with the error message seen below. Is there somewhere in sourcetree I can set the exact command that is executed, or how can I fix this problem?

When I try to resolve a merge conflict using the external merge tool, labview opens with the error seen in the attahced picture. Perhaps incorrect parameters are causing this problem as well.

LVCompare was called with incorrect parameters.

How to call LVCompare:

LVCompare <absolute path to vi1> <absolute path to vi2> [-lvpath <absolute path to LabVIEW>] [-noattr] [-nofp] [-nofppos] [-nobd] [-nobdcosm] [-nobdpos]

[-lvpath <absolute path to LabVIEW>] - Provide the path to the LabVIEW executable you want to compare the VIs
[-noattr] - Do not compare VI attributes
[-nofp] - Do not compare Front Panel
[-nofppos] - Do not compare Front Panel objects' position/size
[-nobd] - Do not compare Block Diagram
[-nobdcosm] - Do not compare Block Diagram objects' cosmetics
[-nobdpos] - Do not compare Block Diagram objects' position/size

Example:
LVCompare c:\test\apple.vi c:\test\orange.vi

Peter Granum

Hi Mike

Thanks for your reply! Something seems to work better now. However, it does not quite work yet. I tried to make a change to the file "xxx.vi". In the tab "file status" I highlighted the file and pressed ctrl+d to launch the external diff tool. Labview compare then opens and gives the error message seen below. Is there somewhere I can set the exact command executed by sourcetree, or how can I fix this problem?

When I try to resolve conflicts in a merge with the external merge tool, labview open and gives the error message seen in the attached picture. Perhaps It is due to incorrect parameters as well.

LVCompare was called with incorrect parameters.

How to call LVCompare:

LVCompare <absolute path to vi1> <absolute path to vi2> [-lvpath <absolute path to LabVIEW>] [-noattr] [-nofp] [-nofppos] [-nobd] [-nobdcosm] [-nobdpos]

[-lvpath <absolute path to LabVIEW>] - Provide the path to the LabVIEW executable you want to compare the VIs
[-noattr] - Do not compare VI attributes
[-nofp] - Do not compare Front Panel
[-nofppos] - Do not compare Front Panel objects' position/size
[-nobd] - Do not compare Block Diagram
[-nobdcosm] - Do not compare Block Diagram objects' cosmetics
[-nobdpos] - Do not compare Block Diagram objects' position/size

Example:
LVCompare c:\test\apple.vi c:\test\orange.vi

Mike Corsaro

Hmmm... seems like you might need to add the absolute path to the LabVIEW exe in the parameters? Could you try the following?

\"C:\program files\PATHTOLABVIEW.exe\" \"$BASE\" \"$LOCAL\" \"$REMOTE\" \"$MERGED\"

UPWT

I have been looking into this as well since I am evaluating Atlassian tools for Version Control with LabVIEW. I am seeing the same issue. I tried looking around for solutions as the ones I found were for Sourcetree prior to version 3.

Sourcetree is a very nice GUI for working with Git and I like that Sourcetree has embedded GIT so that makes adoption by my coworkers more likely.

It seems that others have solved the problem posted by writing scripts to provide LabVIEW Compare and LabVIEW Merge with the Absolute Paths to the argument file locations. I tried the one posted by Endigit and it did not work.

Was hoping to see this was solved here...

UPWT

Here is the link to the GIT repository provided by NI: https://github.com/smithed/vicompare

Peter Granum

Thank you very much, Ryan! I have tested both tools, and they seem to work perfectly!

The only problem I had was, when I tried to launch the external compare tool from sourcetree the first time. Labview complained that several files were not part of the project, so I clicked "add to project". This seemed to set the project in a weird state, so I closed the project without saving the changes. When I tried to launch the compare tool a second time, there was no problem. Unfortunately I did not grab a screenshot, but the problem seems to have went away. When I then tried to luanch the external merge tool, there was no problem.

I am surprised to see that this code apparently is 4-5 years old. Do you have some contact information of the guy who put up the code? Is he from NI?

UPWT

Glad that it worked for you too. I had a small issue the second time I stepped through - but that was due to me using a trial copy of LabVIEW on the PC I am using to evaluate Bitbucket and Sourcetree along with JIRA and Confluence, etc.

Daniel was the original poster of the page on NI.com that pointed me to the solution. You can message him through that forum, as it doesn't look like Github allows contact of members. He is from NI. The page is kind of buried on the NI website which is probably why so many people are missing the solution when they do a web search or even a search on NI website for Sourcetree.

https://forums.ni.com/t5/Reference-Design-Content/Getting-Started-Git-and-GitHub-setup/ta-p/3544824

This is his profile:

https://forums.ni.com/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/163300

About halfway down the left ribbon is a Contact Me panel with a button for sending a Private Message. I just sent him one thanking him for the post. Hopefully he responds.

Ryan

D Smith_giwa7s

Hi all, I'm glad that tool is working well for you. I mentioned to ryan that I was making this a while back when I was trying to push for github use for my old group. Thats also how that doc on the reference design portal came about.

Another possibly useful script you may not be aware of is https://github.com/joerg/LabViewGitEnv/tree/windows

I tried using it at the time (and even branched it) but got frustrated, hence my version, but it looks like someone had spent some time contributing to it a few years ago -- so maybe my frustrations were resolved. I admit I had and still have 0 knowledge of the finer points of bash scripts, let alone bash scripts running in the git terminal on windows.

Some other things worth mentioning:

You can specify a version you want to use, I think with -lv, in other words add "-lv 2017" to the args
The code was written with the goal in mind of being relatively easy to edit. Check the docs folder (esp the image) for what goes where. The only part that is password protected is the core diff/merge function call.
If you are a mixed-use person, there should be a way to assign this to only be called for VIs, I believe...but honestly I find sourcetree good enough for the small bits of python or whatever that I edit.
If you use different labview versions simultaneously I think there are ways it can get confused...as I recall it looks to see if "LabVIEW.exe" is open and uses VI server if it is, but if the port is different it wont work. Or I could be making this up entirely, its been a while
- I thought about maybe using this https://github.com/JamesMc86/LabVIEW-CLI to simplify things rather than trying to use VI server
- Once 2018 is further behind us, it would be worth bumping the code to use the new command line interface

If you do see a specific issue in practice, feel free to put an issue on the repo. best case I fix it, worst case other people can know about it.

-Daniel

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