Re: Newbie question re ediff

[Kevin Rodgers]

mkeller wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> This comes from a emacs novice. I've searched the old posts and found
> several querries related to mine, but all the answers are over my head...
> thus, please answer like you're talking to a "emacs challenged" person when
> replying :).
>
> I use emacs version 21-3 for programming in R (ESS). I'm running on Windows
> XP. I would really like to use the "ediff" or "diff" functions but cannot
> figure out how to do this. If I simply go to Tools -> Compare I get this:
>
> "No such file or directory, diff"
>
> After reading previous querries & responses on this forum, I installed
> diffutils-2.8.7-1.exe and placed those utilities in the folder: C:\Program
> Files\GnuWin32.
>
> Now someone on a previous response said you need to change your _emacs file
> "appropriately," but I have no idea how to do that. Do I need to change the
> _emacs file so that emacs knows where to find the diff program? If so, how
> do I do that? If not, what do I need to do to use diff within emacs?

Is C:\Program Files\GnuWin32 in your PATH environment variable?  The
simplest thing would be to add it, so that you can run diff (and any
other GnuWin32 programs you install) via M-! and M-|.  Your other option
is to set the Emacs ediff-diff-program variable to the absolute path
to the diff executable.

> Appologies for the level of this question, and thanks in advance,

No need to apologize -- this is gnu.emacs.help!

--
Kevin Rodgers
Denver, Colorado, USA