git-difftool: full file tree compare using meld?

Question

Is there an easy way to compare the file tree of an old git commit with the working file tree, in meld?

git-difftool does something very similar, but I don't want it to actually do any diffing; the whole point is that the tool it is calling can provide a better interface for that.

Answer 1

I've tested this on a recent version of meld and it is now built in. You can use it with meld <directory path> so "meld ." works for the current directory. You can checkout a version git co [version] then git reset [version]^ and then run "meld ." to compare any version with it's previous version.

Answer 2

With git > 1.7.11, the git difftool command now supports diffing complete directories using the --dir-diff command. This can be used together with meld:

$ git difftool --tool=meld --dir-diff [commit-to-diff-against]

Answer 3

I also found this issue annoying so I've made git meld which allows a more comfortable way of diffing arbitrary commits against the working tree or the staging area. You can find it at https://github.com/wmanley/git-meld .