Installing FileMerge on OS X

Note: FileMerge is distributed by Apple as part of the Xcode development tools which you can download for free from the Apple developer site by registering with the Apple Developer Connection (ADC). However, the latest version of Xcode requires Tiger, the latest major revision of the OSX known as Tiger (10.4). Also note XCode is approximately 750 megabytes in size.

1. Open a browser and go to the XCode home page.
2. Click the Download Xcode 2.1 link.
3. If you are not already a member, create a new account Apple Developer Connection (ADC)—it's free and quick to do.
4. After successfully logging in, click the Download button to download the file, xcode_tools_2.1dmg.
5. Open the xcode_tools_2.1.dmg file after the download has completed to decompress the developer tools disk image. Several files and folders appear inside the disk image.

6. Open the XcodeTools.mpkg package to launch the Xcode Tools Installer application.

   

   Figure 6. The Xcode Tools Installer application

7. Review the license agreement and click Continue.

   

   Figure 7. The Xcode License agreement

8. The Xcode Tools must be installed on the same volume that has OSX. Select the appropriate volume and click Continue.

   

   Figure 8. Selecting a destination for the Xcode tools.

9. On the installation type step, click the Customize button.

   

   Figure 9. On the installation type step, click the Customize button

   Xcode includes a great deal of software that is not necessary to run FileMerge. In fact, the default installation requires well over one gigabyte.

   

   Figure 10. The full list of tools included with Xcode

10. Since we are only concerned with installing FileMerge, deselect all installation options except Developer Tools.
11. Click the Install button.

Uninstalling FileMerge on OS X

 

Figure 11. Selecting only Developer Tools

Later, if you need to uninstall FileMerge for any reason, use the following steps.

Note: The current version of Xcode uses a PERL script called uninstall-devtools.pl located in the /Developer/Tools/ directory. To execute the installer, perform the following steps:

1. Open a terminal window.

2. Type sudo perl /Developer/Tools/uninstall-devtools.pl (if you installed the Developers in another location, find the script and specify the appropriate location).

   

   Figure 12. Type the command to execute the PERL script

3. Enter your system administrator password:

   

   Figure 13. Entering your system administrator password

4. The installation process begins.

   

   Figure 14. The prompt to enter your administrator password

5. You will be asked to specify the administrator password.

In the next section, I show you how to configure Dreamweaver to recognize your diff utility.

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