Textmate: Using Filemerge for SVN diff

While browsing the interweb for possible reasons why Textmate refuses to display the diff for a single file from two SVN revisions from the subversion bundle, I came across this nifty little tip.

It allows you to use Filemerge for the diff report instead, so you get the nice graphical layout and you can resolve conflicts within Filemerge. Naturally you need Apple’s developer tools installed before proceeding any further. Unsure? Check in your “Macintosh HD” for a folder called “Developer”. If you don’t have it, go grab your OS X install disks and install them.

Alright. Here we go:

Go here and copy the code to your clipboard.

Open terminal and run these commands:
mkdir ~/bin
cd ~/bin
pico fmdiff

Now paste in the contents of your clipboard (apple + V)
Hit Control+X and reply with “y” then enter to save out the file.

Finish with:
chmod 0777 fmdiff

Now launch Textmate, go to “Preferences…” and hit the “Advanced” tab.
Enter a new shell variable with the name of “TM_SVN_DIFF_CMD” and a value of “~/bin/fmdiff”.
Close the box.

Now next time you hit SHIFT + Control + A to bring up the subversion dialogue to choose diff from revisions, Filemerge should load.

Neat.