Kaleidoscope comes with a command-line tool, called ksdiff, which you can use to open files from the command-line or from a script.
Before you can use ksdiff, you need to install it from the Integration window. To install ksdiff:
Examples:
ksdiff file1 file2 file3ksdiff ~/Desktop/*.jpg ksdiff folderA/ folderB/If you give ksdiff a set of paths as arguments, it will launch Kaleidoscope if it isn't open yet, and then create a new tab with those documents. If you supply more than 2 files as arguments, Kaleidoscope will open the File Shelf and display all the files.
ksdiff -w file1 file2\
If you use ksdiff in a script, it might be preferable to have ksdiff open until the comparison it started closes. This way you can remove temporary files you created after the comparison is done, or do some other action after you're sure the user has seen the comparison. This can be done with the -w or --wait command line switch.
To learn more about the ksdiff command line tool, run ksdiff --help to get an overview of its options:
Kaleidoscope:~ help$ ksdiff --help
usage: ksdiff - send files to Kaleidoscope
--version show version information and exit
-h, --help show this help message and exit
--supports-capability CAPABILITY prints YES if CAPABILITY is supported,
otherwise prints NO. the capabilities
this version of ksdiff supports are:
partial-changesets-v1
changesets-v1
diffs-v1
merges-v1
command options:
[--wait, -w | --no-wait] whether to wait for the document to be
closed in Kaleidoscope before exiting
[--label LABEL] use LABEL as the visible label for the
tab in Kaleidoscope, instead of the
default value, which is inferred from
the arguments passed to ksdiff’s parent
process
FILE options:
[--snapshot | --no-snapshot] whether the file is temporary. this
option will override the heuristics
ksdiff would otherwise use to determine
this state.
commands:
--partial-changeset send part of a changeset
implies --no-wait
[--UUID UUID] use UUID to select which document to
add this changeset item to; follow this
with --mark-changeset-as-closed UUID
to tell Kaleidoscope that no more
changes are expected. if unspecified,
Kaleidoscope will watch the process
calling ksdiff and close the changeset
when it exits.
[--relative-path PATH] use PATH to describe the filename and
location for this changeset item within
its root (e.g. a source repository)
FILE FILE the files to diff
--mark-changeset-as-closed UUID marks the partial changeset submitted
under the given UUID as being closed
--changeset send a complete changeset
implies --no-wait
--filelist begin a file list (changeset item)
[--relative-path PATH] use PATH to describe the filename and
location for this changeset item within
its root (e.g. a source repository)
FILE FILE the files to diff
--merge send a merge
implies --wait
--output OUTPUT use OUTPUT as the destination path for
this merge. creates OUTPUT if it does
not exist.
[--base BASE] use BASE as the base content for this
merge. can improve the quality of the
default selections for some merges.
FILE FILE the files to merge
[--diff] send a diff
implies --no-wait
FILE [...] the files to diff