Using ediff as git mergetool

emacs, git, merge

Solution

I use a a more complicated command. As far as I remember I got it from this thread http://kerneltrap.org/mailarchive/git/2007/6/28/250230 (probably the same as what you are referring to).

[mergetool.ediff]
    cmd = emacs --eval \"\
(progn\
  (defun ediff-write-merge-buffer ()\
    (let ((file ediff-merge-store-file))\
      (set-buffer ediff-buffer-C)\
      (write-region (point-min) (point-max) file)\
      (message \\\"Merge buffer saved in: %s\\\" file)\
      (set-buffer-modified-p nil)\
      (sit-for 1)))\
  (setq ediff-quit-hook 'kill-emacs\
        ediff-quit-merge-hook 'ediff-write-merge-buffer)\
  (ediff-merge-files-with-ancestor \\\"$LOCAL\\\" \\\"$REMOTE\\\"\
                                   \\\"$BASE\\\" nil \\\"$MERGED\\\"))\"

Note that I have split this across several lines to increase readability and escaped the newline with `\` so git config considers it as a single line.

I usually use emacsclient to edit e.g. commit messages. The above mergetool configuration unfortunately does not use emacsclient, and when I tried to get it to work with emacsclient I ran in to various problems including the fact that emacsclient returned right away.

But you just reminded me of that issue, so I might work on fixing that problem soon. However if someone else already found a solution that would be great of course ;-)

Problem

I would like to be able to use ediff with "git mergetool". I found some patches that alter the source code, which I don't want to do. Instead, I'd like to add ediff support with my .gitconfig. I know git has builtin support for emerge, but I prefer ediff. I attempted to add these lines to my .gitconfig: ``` [mergetool "ediff"] cmd = emacs --eval "(ediff-merge-files-with-ancestor \"$LOCAL\" \"$REMOTE\" \"$BASE\" nil \"$MERGED\")" ``` But when I try to run this with "git mergetool --tool=ediff", I get this: ``` eval: 1: Syntax error: "(" unexpected ``` What am I doing wrong?

Original source