GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 783660
Meld does not detect changes of files and directories automatically
Last modified: 2017-06-17 00:19:12 UTC
Steps to reproduce: 1. Install Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, it has meld 3.14.2. 2. Create two files $ cd /tmp $ touch file1 file2 3. Open both files in meld $ meld file1 file2 4. Change file1 $ gedit file1 # (or kate, pluma, geany, etc.) Expected results: * Meld has detected file change and reloaded file1. Actual behaviour: * Meld does not detect file change. Temporary resolution: * Force Meld to reread both files with "File->Revert" option. Note: * Previous versions of Meld have special shortcut for file reread - it was "View-Refresh" with <Shift+Ctrl+R> shortcut. For now this shortcut is missed. See bug 783659.
I've just tested this here, and I can confirm that this was broken in 3.14.2. However, it works for me in 3.16.4, which is the current stable release. Could you please test 3.16.4 (you can just run `bin/meld` after extracting the tarball; no need to install it) and see whether that fixes the problem for you?
Binary version 3.16.4 (https://download.gnome.org/sources/meld/3.16/meld-3.16.4.tar.xz) has this bug. It reacts normally on changing file with 'echo' or 'mcedit' (i.e. 'echo test > file1' and 'mcedit file1'), but not 'gedit file1', 'pluma file1', 'kate file1' and so on. Binary development version 3.17.2 (https://download.gnome.org/sources/meld/3.17/meld-3.17.2.tar.xz) does not have this bug. I tested on Ubuntu 16.04.2 LTS amd64 with all updates installed. Which system do you use?
This was my bad, I tested modifications with a different editor and reproduced on 3.16.4. I've just cherry-picked the fix back on to the 3.16 branch, so it'll be in the next stable release whenever that happens. If you want to apply the fix manually, either checkout the meld-3-16 git branch or, since it's a single line, you can make the code change from: https://git.gnome.org/browse/meld/commit/?h=meld-3-16&id=628f2bb0b8b4c6da9d200877f65a6935a6759a1c Thanks for your bug report.