Use kaleidoscope app for external diff app in source tree

[Mehmet Fatih YILDIZ]

I use kaleidoscope app (http://www.kaleidoscopeapp.com) as me diff app but I couldn't make it work with sourcetree.

Sourcetree has predefined external diff app list. Also I don't have any of those tools so the external diff app section is disabled for me. Basically I can't do external diff right now.

Can you help me to set it up or if it's not possible at this time, is there a plan to add it on the roadmap?

[Ronnie Otts · Accepted solution]

Go to SourceTree --> preferences, in your menubar.

Under the "diff" tab, you can select from a list of installed diff tools.

Do you have the command "ksdiff" installed? (if not http://www.kaleidoscopeapp.com/ksdiff2 )
It looks like sourcetree uses this to start kaleidoscope

[Mehmet Fatih YILDIZ]

Oh, External Diff section is completely disabled. I checked my kaleidoscope app version and realized that there is a major version released recently. That's probably why it doesn't recognize my older version.

I'll update and check preference tab for this.

[KieranA]

Hi Mehmet,

On the 'General' tab of your SourceTree preferences there's a checkbox right at the very top saying "Allow SourceTree to modify your global Mercurial and Git configuration files". If this is disabled then we can't set the diff tool on your behalf which is why that whole section (the external diff section) on the diff tab is tabled. Make sure the checkbox is turned on and it should work.

There are other cases where it may not work, but that's usually the most likely case.

Cheers

[Mehmet Fatih YILDIZ]

Yeah this is helpful but when i select Kaleidoscope, it says it's not installed but I'm already using kaleidoscope but the 1.x version. Kaleidoscope guys have 2.x versions but I don't want to upgrade because current version works great for me.

[KieranA]

We've got open issues on improving the helpfulness of this as it's a bit basic in that it tells you it won't work. It expects certain utilities on certain paths. You can use the custom setting to do it, too. Go to "SourceTree Help" in the "Help" menu and search for "Preferences: Diff". This help document aids you with the options you can provide when choosing the custom external diff tool.

If you need any more help I can take a deeper look into it if that document isn't of use.

Cheers