Difftool for binary files in Git

Question

I have made Git to diff some binary files by copying the files to a directory in the Temp folder in Windows using a .bat file (or batch script).

The script copies the original file and makes a companion file with extension .txt which contains the text representation of the binary file. Afterwards, it writes the contents of the generated file using the command

type C:\DOCUME~1\ROGER\CONFIG~1\Temp\roger\file.txt

All that is using Git attributes. Now, I need to use the companion .txt file to be used in the git difftool command instead of the original file. How do I tell Git which files it should use when diffing .someExtension files?

I have tried to make another .bat file, but the configuration needed in .gitconfig seems to run only Linux scripts, not Windows which are the ones I need, because Linux doesn't understand the path given by Git, i.e., C:\DOCUME~1\ROGER\CONFIG~1\Temp\ when running the copy command cp.

This is my .gitconfig:

[difftool "fmbdiff"]
    keepBackup = false
    keepTemporaries = false
    path = C:/Archivos de programa/Git/cmd/fmbDiffTool.bat
    cmd = \"/c/Archivos de programa/Git/cmd/fmbDiffTool.bat\" \"/$LOCAL\" \"$PWD/$BASE\"

So, the questions that might solve the problem are:

• How do I run a .bat file specified in the cmd entry of the difftool in gitconfig?
• Or: How do I get the path of the Windows temporary folder when running the script Git invokes and Linux can understand for copying?
• Or: What am I doing wrong to achieve this?

Answer 1

Basically, the difftool declares a batch script, which can work with a Windows path like:

/c/xxx

That is what I did in "How do I view 'git diff' output with a visual diff program?" 4 years ago.

But for a more complex script, the easiest way is to make a separate one (exe or jar, as you suggests), and call it from the batch script.