<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE appendix SYSTEM "../../dtd/dblite.dtd">
<appendix id="tme-automation">
	<title>Automating TortoiseMerge</title>
	<simplesect>
		<para>
			TortoiseMerge can be started with command line parameters to avoid having
			to go through the <guilabel>Open</guilabel> dialog to select the files 
			yourself. This is useful also if you want to use TortoiseMerge from 
			another application.
		</para>
	</simplesect>
	<!-- ================================================================= -->
	<!-- ======================== SECTION 1 ============================== -->
	<!-- ================================================================= -->
	<sect1 id="tme-automation-basics">
		<title>TortoiseMerge Command Line Switches</title>
		<indexterm>
			<primary>automation</primary>
		</indexterm>
		<indexterm>
			<primary>command line</primary>
		</indexterm>
		<para>
			Most switches require additional information like a path or some
			other string. In those cases, append an ':' to the switch and put
			the string/path after it. Example:
<screen>
/base:"c:\folder\my base file.txt"
</screen>
		</para>
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<entry condition="pot">/about</entry>

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		<para>
			<table id="tme-automation-1-table">
				<title>List of available command line options</title>
				<tgroup cols="2">
					<colspec colnum="1" colwidth="2*"/>
					<colspec colnum="2" colwidth="6*"/>
					<thead>
						<row>
							<entry>Command</entry>
							<entry>Description</entry>
						</row>
					</thead>
					<tbody>
						<row>
							<entry condition="pot">/?</entry>
							<entry>
								Shows a dialog box with the most important command line
								switches.
							</entry>
						</row>
						<row>
							<entry condition="pot">/help</entry>
							<entry>
								The same as <option>?</option>.
							</entry>
						</row>
						<row>
							<entry condition="pot">/base</entry>
							<entry>
								Specifies the <emphasis>base</emphasis> file used
								in three way diffs. This is the common ancestor
								of the files being diffed, although it is not
								shown in a separate window.
								For two way diffs, this is the left file.
							</entry>
						</row>
						<row>
							<entry condition="pot">/basename</entry>
							<entry>
								The name of the base file.
								This is shown in the view title instead of the file path.
								For three way diffs it is shown in a tooltip for the
								view title.
							</entry>
						</row>
						<row>
							<entry condition="pot">/theirs</entry>
							<entry>
								Specifies the <emphasis>theirs</emphasis> file used
								in three way diffs, displayed in the left pane.
							</entry>
						</row>
						<row>
							<entry condition="pot">/theirsname</entry>
							<entry>
								The name of the theirs file. This is shown in the
								view title instead of the file path.
							</entry>
						</row>
						<row>
							<entry condition="pot">/mine</entry>
							<entry>
								Specifies the <emphasis>mine</emphasis> file used
								in three way diffs, displayed in the right pane.
								For two way diffs, this is the right file.
							</entry>
						</row>
						<row>
							<entry condition="pot">/minename</entry>
							<entry>
								The name of the mine file. This is shown in the
								view title instead of the file path.
							</entry>
						</row>
						<row>
							<entry condition="pot">/merged</entry>
							<entry>
								Specifies the resulting <emphasis>merged</emphasis> file used
								in three way diffs. This is the file path where the result of
								the merge/conflict resolving is saved.
								If this is not set, then TortoiseMerge will ask the user where
								to save the result.
							</entry>
						</row>
						<row>
							<entry condition="pot">/mergedname</entry>
							<entry>
								The name of the merged file. This is shown in the
								view title instead of the file path.
							</entry>
						</row>
						<row>
							<entry condition="pot">/patchpath</entry>
							<entry>
								The path where a patch should be applied to. If you don't
								set this path, then TortoiseMerge will try to find the path
								itself to match the paths in the patch file, but that can take
								<emphasis>very long</emphasis>.
							</entry>
						</row>
						<row>
							<entry condition="pot">/patchoriginal</entry>
							<entry>
								The name of the original file to patch. Used for the view
								title.
							</entry>
						</row>
						<row>
							<entry condition="pot">/patchpatched</entry>
							<entry>
								The name of the resulting patched file. Used for the view
								title.
							</entry>
						</row>
						<row>
							<entry condition="pot">/diff</entry>
							<entry>
								The path to the patch/diff file to apply to a directory.
							</entry>
						</row>
						<row>
							<entry condition="pot">/oneway</entry>
							<entry>
								Forces TortoiseMerge to start with the one-way view
								instead of the view the user specified in the settings.
							</entry>
						</row>
						<row>
							<entry condition="pot">/reversedpatch</entry>
							<entry>
								Switches the left and right view of the specified
								two files to diff.
							</entry>
						</row>
						<row>
							<entry condition="pot">/createunifieddiff</entry>
							<entry>
								Creates a unified diff file (patch file) of two files
								specified with
								<literal>/origfile:"path_to_original_file"</literal> and
								<literal>/modifiedfile:"path_to_modified_file"</literal>.
								The target path is set with
								<literal>/outfile:"path_to_resulting_patchfile"</literal>.
								If <literal>/outfile</literal> is not set, a file save dialog
								is shown so the user can choose the location to save the
								patch file.
								Note: If <literal>/createunifieddiff</literal> is set,
								all other parameters are ignored.
							</entry>
						</row>
					</tbody>
				</tgroup>
			</table>
		</para>
		<para>
			You can also supply simple filenames on the command line for compatibility
			with other diff programs. In this simplified form the command line is
<screen>
TortoiseMerge BaseFilePath MyFilePath [ TheirFilePath ]
</screen>
			If two files are given they will be compared with each other.
			If three files are given, the first is taken as the BASE file,
			and the other two are compared with it in a three-way diff.
		</para>
	</sect1>
</appendix>
