Installing meld or p4merge as diff / merge tool for Git on Windows

Meld

The following PowerShell uses Chocolatey to install meld and configures it as the diff and merge tool for Git. Note that meld is an officially supported diff tool in Git for Windows.

cinst meld

git config --global diff.tool meld
git config --global merge.tool meld

git config --global mergetool.meld.keeptemporaries false
git config --global mergetool.meld.trustExitCode false
git config --global mergetool.meld.keepbackup false

P4Merge (Perforce Merge)

The following PowerShell uses Chocolatey to install p4merge and configures it as the diff and merge tool for Git. Note that p4merge is an officially supported diff tool in Git for Windows.

cinst p4merge

git config --global diff.tool p4merge
git config --global merge.tool p4merge

git config --global mergetool.p4merge.keeptemporaries false
git config --global mergetool.p4merge.trustExitCode false
git config --global mergetool.p4merge.keepbackup false

Semantic Merge

If you're coding in C#, it may be worth using Semantic Merge (also installable via Chocolatey). Note that this set of commands sets up the PlasticSCM merge tool as the fall-back when not merging C#.

cinst SemanticMerge

git config --global diff.tool semantic
git config --global merge.tool semantic

$semanticMergeUserPath = Resolve-Path ~\AppData\local\PlasticSCM4\semanticmerge\semanticmergetool.exe
git config --global difftool.semantic.cmd ('''' + $semanticMergeUserPath + ''' -d=\"$LOCAL\" -s=\"$REMOTE\" -edt=\"mergetool.exe -d=\"\"@sourcefile\"\" -dn=\"\"@sourcesymbolic\"\" -s=\"\"@destinationfile\"\" -sn=\"\"@destinationsymbolic\"\" -t=\"\"@filetype\"\" -i=\"\"@comparationmethod\"\" -e=\"\"@fileencoding\"\"\"')
git config --global mergetool.semantic.cmd ('''' + $semanticMergeUserPath + ''' -b=\"$BASE\" -d=\"$LOCAL\" -s=\"$REMOTE\" -r=\"$MERGED\" -l=csharp -emt=\"mergetool.exe -b=\"\"@basefile\"\" -bn=\"\"@basesymbolic\"\" -s=\"\"@sourcefile\"\" -sn=\"\"@sourcesymbolic\"\" -d=\"\"@destinationfile\"\" -dn=\"\"@destinationsymbolic\"\" -r=\"\"@output\"\" -t=\"\"@filetype\"\" -i=\"\"@comparationmethod\"\" -e=\"\"@fileencoding\"\"\" -edt=\"mergetool.exe  -s=\"\"@sourcefile\"\" -sn=\"\"@sourcesymbolic\"\" -d=\"\"@destinationfile\"\" -dn=\"\"@destinationsymbolic\"\" -t=\"\"@filetype\"\" -i=\"\"@comparationmethod\"\" -e=\"\"@fileencoding\"\"\"')

git config --global mergetool.semantic.keeptemporaries false
git config --global mergetool.semantic.trustExitCode false
git config --global mergetool.semantic.keepbackup false

Other merge tools

You can see which diff tools are supported natively by git by running the following command:

git difftool --tool-help

You'll see something like the following result:

'git difftool --tool-<tool>' may be set to one of the following:
  gvimdiff
  gvimdiff2
  vimdiff
  vimdiff2

The following tools are valid, but not currently available:
  araxis
  bc3
  codecompare
  defaults
  deltawalker
  diffuse
  ecmerge
  emerge
  kdiff3
  kompare
  meld
  opendiff
  p4merge
  tkdiff
  vim
  xxdiff

Some of the tools listed above only work in a windowed
environment. If run in a terminal-only session, they will fail.

Multiple recipients with SmtpClient in .NET

When sending a quick email, for example to notify of a PowerShell task failure, the simplest System.Net.Mail.SmtpClient method to use is usually this one:

public void Send(
 string from,
 string recipients,
 string subject,
 string body
)

The parameter name recipients implies that it is possible to send the email to more than one recipient - but the documentation does not say how. I tried separating the addresses with a semicolon, but that failed with the following error:

"Send" with "4" argument(s): "An invalid character was found in the mail header: ';'."

The correct separator to use, which I only found out by trawling through the .NET source with ILSpy, is a comma (,).