<info> <name>Kai Willadsen</name> <email>kai.willadsen@gmail.com</email> <years>2012</years> </info> Viewing version-controlled files

<app>Meld</app> integrates with many version control systems to let you review local changes and perform simple version control tasks. You can start a new version control comparison by selecting the <guiseq>FileNew...</guiseq> menu item, and clicking on the Version Control tab.

Version control comparisons

Version control comparisons show the differences between the contents of your folder and the current repository version. Each file in your local copy has a state that indicates how it differs from the repository copy.

<comment> Kai

Interacting with VC systems should have its own page.

</comment>

If you want to look at a particular file's differences, you can select it and press <key>Enter</key>, or double-click the file to start a file comparison. You can also interact with your version control system using the Changes menu.

Version control states

Each file or folder in a version control comparison has a state, obtained from the version control system itself. <app>Meld</app> maps these different states into a standard set of very similar concepts. As such, <app>Meld</app> might use slightly different names for states than your version control system does. The possible states are:

<comment> Kai

The following table would be much more effective if we could style entries in the Appearance column to show what they would actually look like.

Ideally we would pull these colours and other details from the theme/gtkrc, but even an illustration of the default would help a lot.

</comment>

Version control states

State | Appearance | Meaning
Same | Normal font | The file/folder is the same as the repository version.
Modified | Red and bold | This file is different to the repository version.
New | Green and bold | This file/folder is new, and is scheduled to be added to the repository.
Removed | Red bold text with a line through the middle | This file/folder existed, but is scheduled to be removed from the repository.
Conflict | Bright red bold text | When trying to merge with the repository, the differences between the local file and the repository could not be resolved, and the file is now in conflict with the repository contents
Missing | Blue bold text with a line through the middle | This file/folder should be present, but isn't.
Ignored | Greyed out text | This file/folder has been explicitly ignored (e.g., by an entry in <file>.gitignore</file>) and is not being tracked by version control.
Unversioned | Greyed out text | This file is not in the version control system; it is only in the local copy.
Error | Bright red with a yellow background and bold | The version control system has reported a problem with this file.

Version control state filtering

Most often, you will only want to see files that are identified as being in some way different; this is the default setting in <app>Meld</app>. You can change which file states you see by using the <guiseq>ViewVersion Status</guiseq> menu, or by clicking the corresponding Modified, Normal, Unversioned and Ignored buttons on the toolbar.