GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 746616
Display complete directory paths when comparing two directories
Last modified: 2017-12-13 19:11:32 UTC
When you compare two directories, often you want compare two directories with the same last path name component - for example: /old/path/to/dir/same-dir-name/ /new/path/to/dir/same-dir-name/ Meld shows only last path name component above the two side-by-side directory listings. Using the provided example directory paths, both side-by-side directory listings would have the same string displayed above them - 'same-dir-name'. Meld provides functionality to manually, file by file, synchronize two directories, by alloving to copy files from one directory to another or delete files as necessary, and does superb job of indicating, by formatting file names using different colors and font attributes, which files are different/newer/older/not present. But, given that there is no indication of the complete path to the directories that are being compared - both side-by-side directory listings have the same string ('same-file-name') above them, it is hard to figure out, after you started meld, from which side of the meld side-by-side dispaly you wanted to copy newer files to another side, and on which side you wanted to delete old files. It would be nice if meld would display full directory paths instead of just the last path component. Or, at least, if there was a way to find out, for example, by right-clicking the displayed last path component, and choosing something like 'Directory Properties' in the context menu, the complete path of the directory displayed in this side of the meld display.
This would be nice, yes. Unfortunately the widget we use for file selection makes it basically impossible to do. At the time it seemed like using the standard GTK file choose button was a good idea, but it wasn't. In short, doing this means changing the UI of the selectors, probably so that it's a label + selector. Having a path-bar style display would be nice too. However, we can't just adjust the selector labels, much as I would like to. It's worth mentioning that the full paths should (I think) appear in the tooltip of the comparison tab. I realise that this is not very discoverable.
*** Bug 751088 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
This bug is the reason I'm still using 1.8.6
I often come across this issue when using Meld. Thanks, Kai, for the explanation regarding why this is a difficult issue to tackle. Note that in addition to the workaround Kai mentioned (the tooltip over the tab), the information is also in the title of the window.
I also faced this issue after upgrading to Ubuntu 16.04. It's extremely annoying to be unable to copy part of the path when using command line git + meld. There is a discussion on StackOverflow as well regarding this issue: https://askubuntu.com/questions/889856/copy-path-from-meld-window/967176 Would it be possible to add an option to choose directory path display style to meld preferences?
Or maybe an 'edit'/'pencil' button near widget, that would replace this widget with a text field
Just my experience: The broken workflows are: - copy <file name> and open it in IDE - copy <parent dir name>/<file name> and open it in IDE - distinguish between the local file and temporary dir when performing a comparison of revisions in git - copy the entire path to a directory (or to some parent directory) and commit it/view history or diff when using console git Previous versions of Meld were an incredible fast&handy tool for doing that. Used it far more often that IDE built-in diff tool.
-- GitLab Migration Automatic Message -- This bug has been migrated to GNOME's GitLab instance and has been closed from further activity. You can subscribe and participate further through the new bug through this link to our GitLab instance: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/meld/issues/84.