Shortcut to a blank comparison?

[claradaia (Clara Daru)]

I have mostly used meld for git merges, but recently started using it for text editing, as a way to easily look at the previous version while I edit the new one. Usually I just copy the text and open meld through the app launcher, which means I always have to click twice to select “File” and “blank comparison”.

I would like to skip to the blank comparison. I created a shortcut to open two temporary files, but I don’t love it as 1. it either complains the files don’t exist, or opens older files, and 2. “save” becomes “save to the temp file” instead of prompting me to create a new file.

Is there a way to launch meld straight into a “native” blank comparison?

If not, do you have any advice if I want to add it to the CLI myself?

[gwillems]

Hi,

That should do the trick:

meld @blank @blank

(requires Meld version >= 3.23)

[tehnicaorg (Andrei)]

@claradaia

which means I always have to click twice to select “File” and “blank comparison”.

As a new user of meld, I was confused why the “Blank comparison” was disabled. Maybe it should be active and default to comparing two buffers.