how to enable meld file filters

Question

I use meld normally in a git web project (system: Ubuntu-gnome 13.10).

I want it to skip scanning certain files and folders, such as the .meteor directory (which takes a while to scan).

Ubuntu-Gnome installs meld 1.8.1. It has under Edit -> Preferences -> File Filters an option to add a new file filter. More details: http://meldmerge.org/help/file-filters.html#file-name-filter

I added new rules for the file and folder I want to skip (and checked the 'activate' option), but it does not seem to work, even after restarting meld.

The new rules just don't seem to work - I see meld is scanning the .meteor folder and also, it shows the allegedly ignored file (index.html) as changed. I don't see an open meld bug for "file filters not working". I am inclined to think it does work, only I'm doing something wrong. Any ideas how to tackle this would be most welcome!

Answer 1

I'm currently using Meld version 3.18.0 on Ubuntu 18.04. The meld documentation mentions custom filters. The settings menu is accessible when meld has the focus. It is located at the top-left menu of your screen.

I've made a screenshot.

Answer 2

I have an answer for my own question, somewhat:

Meld has two modes:

1. VC (Version Control): Meld compares against the VC image of the directory, and ignores the File Filters option
2. Non-VC mode: the filters kick in

This makes somewhat sense, a way.

I use meteor.js which has a .meteor folder for project meta data. In it there are pulled packages, their src and other meta. Many files/folder, in short. The .meteor folder is listed in the .gitignore file, so git excludes it. Meld on the other hand, revisits it and spends a while scanning its sub folders, which seems to take "forever".

I looked for ways to prevent it. One direction was to use the File Filters feature. Another, would be for meld (in VC-mode) skip ignored content.

Meld has a reported issue "Have meld use the .gitignore to limit scanned dir/files", see: https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=684400

As of today this issue is fixed (repo head contains it). Looks like it will be in meld ver 3.11.1 and onward. As expected, this fix solves my problem.

As a side note, it might take a while for this fix to get to Deb/Ubuntu, so if you need it, use meld head from: http://meldmerge.org/development.html