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To install meld on Mac OSX I try to run:

brew install meld

but I got the following error:

Error: No available formula for meld

What is the right way to install meld?

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  • 3
    you probably ought to switch out the accepted answer...
    – Zach Lysobey
    Commented Jan 15, 2014 at 23:10

9 Answers 9

Reset to default
7

When this question was asked, it was not possible using Homebrew. They didn't support it yet.

There are alternative solutions to installing meld on OS X:

Use a different package manager, like Fink, which is mentioned in meld's installation manual, or MacPorts, mentioned in the issue in Homebrew's issue tracker.

You can probably also compile from source, but need to get the dependencies yourself. Installing one of the other package managers might be easier than that.

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  • 1
    @meduz Changed the answer. Since I mention alternatives that used to work when this question was new, I decided against deleting the answer, as it might help those with the same issue with different software.
    – Daniel Beck ♦
    Commented Jan 30, 2013 at 9:40
  • 3
    as of today, the correct answer is below: superuser.com/a/1177575/404225
    – jotadepicas
    Commented Mar 3, 2017 at 20:53
  • This answer is no longer correct. The OP should unaccept it.
    – Merchako
    Commented Jan 25, 2018 at 10:56
  • @Merchako Could you clarify why it's not correct? The first paragraph implies that it's (now) possible using Homebrew. Are the specific alternatives I provide no longer correct?
    – Daniel Beck ♦
    Commented Jan 25, 2018 at 11:21
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    @DanielBeck, perhaps I was too lose with my words. Sorry. I think this answer is no longer the most relevant (as the votes show). The OP really needs to demote it. Also, it would help if you changed your typesetting to differentiate the first line from your original answer; it would be easier to scan.
    – Merchako
    Commented Jan 27, 2018 at 4:19
135

Homebrew

You can now install Meld with Homebrew! On macOS, run:

$ brew install --cask meld

Other Homebrew Commands

I've changed the syntax of this answer over time to be more fluent. The following commands are equivalent and also work for at least macOS Sierra and High Sierra:

$ brew install --cask homebrew/cask/meld
$ brew install homebrew/cask/meld

You should not run the older $ brew install homebrew/gui/meld because it's deprecated by Homebrew.

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  • 3
    upvoted! only 37 votes to go :P
    – jotadepicas
    Commented Mar 3, 2017 at 20:54
  • The second step should be brew install caskroom/cask/meld. Check the brew warning when trying to run brew install homebrew/gui/meld: Warning: Use caskroom/cask/meld instead of deprecated homebrew/gui/meld
    – Juraj Martinka
    Commented Jul 11, 2017 at 7:18
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    FYI: $ brew cask install meld works for me on macOS Catalina v10.15.2 as of today 29 Jan 2020.
    – Yuci
    Commented Jan 29, 2020 at 11:28
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    @Yuci are you not getting an error when launching the app due to it not being verified ?
    – Ciprian Tomoiagă
    Commented Mar 12, 2020 at 22:44
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    @CiprianTomoiagă No error, it is working fine. Just to be sure, I opened it just now :-)
    – Yuci
    Commented Mar 13, 2020 at 10:00
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As pointed out by @meduz in the comment above, meld now compiles file in brew (haven't tested yet), please try it first, since my original answer is much older.

Today is already possible install it using Homebrew:

brew install meld

I got a issue with pygtk, when I execute meld it says:

Couldn't bind the translation domain. Some translations won't work.
Cannot import: pygtk
No module named pygtk

I already have pygtk installed from lion, and needed to export it to work:

export PYTHONPATH=/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/

Add the above line to your ~/.profile to set PYTHONPATH automatically when you open a terminal window.

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  • 1
    it compiles fine on the current version of homebrew, could you please edit your answer?
    – meduz
    Commented Jan 30, 2013 at 9:00
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    Note you will have to install XQuartz (from MacOS Forge) before installing Meld.
    – Abhi Beckert
    Commented Feb 18, 2013 at 1:16
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    Note this is a lengthy install, took about 14 minutes on my (Ivy Bridge) machine.
    – Steven Lu
    Commented May 25, 2013 at 23:42
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    Note, for me, this still resulted in an error, which was addressed in this post on SuperUser: superuser.com/questions/455511/…
    – Brad Parks
    Commented Sep 13, 2013 at 17:24
  • In 2015 with Meld 3.14.0, XQuartz was not required for install. GTK+ appears to be running on the native X server? I'm not sure, but I know I don't have XQuartz installed.
    – Johann
    Commented Aug 19, 2015 at 20:49
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On OSX El Captain you have just to run:

$ brew install homebrew/gui/meld

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  • 3
    This is the most up-to-date answer.
    – Eric Dand
    Commented Jul 13, 2016 at 20:53
  • 1
    currently this fails with Warning: Use caskroom/cask/meld instead of deprecated homebrew/gui/meld
    – jotadepicas
    Commented Mar 3, 2017 at 20:51
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    @jotadepicas It does. Instead you can just use brew install caskroom/cask/meld and it works (note: I already had xquartz installed).
    – Declan McGrath
    Commented Apr 16, 2017 at 21:04
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I believe that the current correct brew commands are 

brew install Caskroom/cask/xquartz
brew install homebrew/x11/meld

However after running those commands I ended with the following, which I know that I have overcome on other installations on different macs in the past. 

Couldn't bind the translation domain. Some translations won't work.
'module' object has no attribute 'bindtextdomain'
/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/gtk-2.0/gtk/__init__.py:57: GtkWarning: could not open display
  warnings.warn(str(e), _gtk.Warning)
/usr/local/Cellar/meld/1.8.6/libexec/bin/meld:155: GtkWarning: gtk_icon_theme_get_for_screen: assertion 'GDK_IS_SCREEN (screen)' failed
  gtk.icon_theme_get_default().append_search_path(meld.paths.icon_dir())
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/Cellar/meld/1.8.6/libexec/bin/meld", line 155, in <module>
    gtk.icon_theme_get_default().append_search_path(meld.paths.icon_dir())
AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'append_search_path'

But this time I decided it wasn't worth my time since I couldn't remember the exact remedy.

Instead I found a simple DMG installer and script from Alex Kras to launch the Meld application installed by the DMG installer. The instructions are on his site. Note, though, that this DMG-installed version doesn't respond well to to the git mergetool input

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  • 1
    I actually ended up abandoning the DMG version and went with the brew install. I could not get the DMG version to correctly understand git mergetool's output
    – Kirby
    Commented May 5, 2015 at 22:09
  • Same problem as Kirby :(
    – Bruno Medeiros
    Commented Jul 28, 2015 at 13:21
  • On masOs Siera it just works w/o problem, $> brew install Caskroom/cask/meld ==> brew cask install Caskroom/cask/meld ==> Downloading github.com/yousseb/meld/releases/download/osx-9/meldmerge.dmg ######################################################################## 100.0% ==> Verifying checksum for Cask meld ==> Moving App 'Meld.app' to '/Applications/Meld.app' 🍺 meld was successfully installed!
    – arty
    Commented Feb 9, 2017 at 16:00
6

Try this

brew install homebrew/x11/meld

or this

brew tap homebrew/x11
brew install meld

Meld is in Homebrew's X11 repository. Running brew tap homebrew/x11 allows Homebrew to see Meld in that repository. (2015 answer)

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  • Once installed how does one use meld?
    – evolutionxbox
    Commented Oct 22, 2015 at 14:46
  • 1
    @evolutionxbox, just type meld in your terminal
    – Roy
    Commented Jan 15, 2016 at 20:28
  • @Roy makes sense. Not sure why I never tried it
    – evolutionxbox
    Commented Jan 15, 2016 at 22:44
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    brew install homebrew/gui/meld worked for me. Looks like the package was moved?
    – Gordon Gustafson
    Commented Jun 8, 2016 at 20:33
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Don't install it using Brew. Do it this way instead. https://yousseb.github.io/meld/

Top reasons behind using this fork over Macports or Homebrew builds: Retina support (check the screenshot!) Latest 3.x series No hassle install (drag/drop like any other app) Integrates with OSX menu

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  • @mwfearnley Ok. I moved my comment to the answer. Cheers.
    – SmileBot
    Commented Nov 6, 2016 at 13:48
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As the formula for Homebrew disappeared i want to mention an alternative. There's this build as OS X application which is simple to install. It was last built in December '14 and requires some tweaks if you want to use it from the command line. I have not yet tried to figure out how.

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  • Thank you, this works. The homebrew business didn't work for me :-/, just complains about missing imports. Do you know how to make that app available from bash commad line?
    – Leo Ufimtsev
    Commented Feb 20, 2016 at 17:25
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It's been moved to Caskroom/cask, so run:

brew install Caskroom/cask/meld
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  • Does this still works?
    – bonafernando
    Commented Sep 20, 2023 at 22:38

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