Using IntelliJ to diff two arbitrary files

Found this command line:

on MacOSX: (IDEA EAP 11)

/Applications/IntelliJ\ IDEA\ 11.app/Contents/MacOS/idea diff /Users/ben75/file1.txt /Users/ben75/file2.txt

On MacOSX it can’t run when IDEA (11) is open.

on Windows: (IDEA EAP 12)

"C:\Program Files (x86)\JetBrains\IntelliJ IDEA 12.0\bin\idea.exe" diff C:\Users\ben75\file1.txt C:\Users\ben75\file2.txt

It runs even if IDEA is already open.

I have trouble when trying to compare files with no extensions (or extensions that don’t match )

Directly from IDEA (EAP 12)

Not so easy, but it works…

  • File > Open… > select “file1.txt”
  • File > Open… > select “file2.txt”
  • Create a “Favorite list” and add both files to this favorite list.
    (to do this : ctrl+right-click on file name tab in the editor > add
    to favorite > select the favorite list just created – see screenshot)
  • Finally, open the “Favorites” view (Alt+2 or click on it on the left or your IDEA windows).
  • Select both files
  • Right click : “compare two files” (or ctrl+D)

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