Use Beyond Compare in ClearCase

If you use any kind of source control system, one of the things you need to do is compare differences or "do diffs" or different versions of a file. However the the compare tool in clearcase is crap.

Beyond Compare is probably the the best file (and folder) comparison I have come across. It can even compare zip files.

If you are tired of using the shitty compare tool that is a default in clearcase there is indeed a way to switch this to use beyond compare instead

1. Go into the "C:\Program Files\Rational\ClearCase\lib\mgrs" directory.

2. Create a backup of the file named "map".

3. Edit "map" and change the line:

text_file_delta  xcompare   ..\..\bin\cleardiffmrg.exe

to:

text_file_delta  xcompare   C:\Progra~1\Beyond~1\bc2.exe

Thats it, next time you compare two versions of a file in the version tree or you compare with previous version, beyond compare will be used instead.

Alternately if you want to use winmerge (which is opensource and free) , then it gives you an option to replace the default viewer when you install it.