One of the commonest requirements in project development is to see what has changed. You might want to look at the differences between two revisions of the same file, or the differences between two separate files. TortoiseSVN provides some builtin tools for this, and also allows you to use your own favourite diff program.
If you want to see what changes you have made in your working copy, just use the explorer context menu and select → .
If you want to see the difference between a particular revision and your working copy, use the Revision Log dialog, select the revision of interest, then select from the context menu.
If you want to see the difference between two revisions which are already committed, use the Revision Log dialog and select the two revisions you want to compare (using the usual Ctrl-modifier). Then select from the context menu.
If you want to see the changes made to all files in a particular revision in one view, you can use Unified-Diff output (GNU patch format). This shows only the differences with a few lines of context. It is harder to read than a visual file compare, but will show all the changes together. From the Revision Log dialog select the revision of interest, then select from the context menu.
If you want to see the differences between two different files, you can do that directly in explorer by selecting both files (using the usual Ctrl-modifier). Then from the explorer context menu select → .
The builtin tools supplied with TortoiseSVN do not support viewing differences between directory hierarchies. But if you have an external tool which does support that feature, you can use that instead. In the next section we tell you about some tools which we have used.
If the tools we provide don't do what you need, try one of the many open-source or commercial programs available. Everyone has their own favourites, and this list is by no means complete, but here are a few that you might consider:
WinMerge is a great open-source diff tool which can also handle directories.
Perforce is a commercial RCS, but you can download the diff/merge tool for free. Get more information from Perforce .
KDiff3 is a free diff tool which can also handle directories. You can download it from here .
ExamDiff Standard is freeware. It can handle files but not directories. ExamDiff Pro is shareware and adds a number of goodies including directory diff and editing capability. In both flavours, version 3.2 and above can handle unicode. You can download them from PrestoSoft .
Similar to ExamDiff Pro, this is an excellent shareware diff tool which can handle directory diffs and unicode. Download it from Scooter Software .
Araxis Merge is a useful commercial tool for diff and merging both files and folders. It does three-way comparision in merges and has synchronization links to use if you've changed the order of functions. Download it from Araxis .
This text editor includes syntax colouring for unified diffs, making them much easier to read. Download it from Scintilla .
Notepad2 is designed as a replacement for the standard Windows Notepad program, and is based on the Scintilla open-source edit control. As well as being good for viewing unified diffs, it is much better than the Windows notepad for most jobs. Download it for free here .
A free diff/merge tool which uses TCL/TK. Download it here .
This open source merge tool is buggy, but has potential. Download it here .
Read the section called “External Program Settings” for information on how to set up TortoiseSVN to use these tools.