PyCharm 2018.1 Help

Viewing Difference Between Files from Command Line

You can use PyCharm as a command line tool for viewing differences between files.

  • In the command line, run the diff command using the following syntax:
    <PyCharm> diff path1 path2

The selected files will be opened in the Differences Viewer for Files.

The command options are as follows:

Option Description
<PyCharm>

The platform-specific PyCharm launcher.

On macOS and Linux, it is recommended to use the command-line launcher created during the PyCharm installation, or create one manually by selecting Tools | Create Command-line Launcher on the PyCharm main menu. Refer to Besides working from within PyCharm, you can perform the following actions from the command line: for details.

On Windows, it is recommended to add the path to the PyCharm executable to the Path environment variable.

path1 The full path to the local copy of the file.
path2 The full path to the repository version copy of the file.

Examples

Syntax
pycharm.exe diff path1 path2
Example
pycharm.exe diff C:\MyProject\Readme.md C:\MyProject\Readme.md.bak
Syntax
pycharm diff path1 path2
Example
pycharm diff ~/MyProject/Readme.md ~/MyProject/Readme.md.bak
Last modified: 23 July 2018

See Also