git difftool doesn't launch Beyond Compare from Powershell or command prompt

Question

I'm trying to use Beyond Compare 3 as my diff tool with git. I configured git with the following commands: (source: Using Beyond Compare With Version Control Systems)

git config --global diff.tool bc3
git config --global difftool.bc3.path "c:/program files/beyond compare 3/bcomp.exe"

My config now appears to be set correctly:

git config --global --list

returns

help.autocorrect=1
core.editor='c:/program files/sublime text 2/sublime_text.exe' -w
core.autocrlf=true
color.ui=auto
diff.tool=bc3
difftool.bc3.path=c:/program files/beyond compare 3/bcomp.exe

However, when I run

git difftool Readme.txt

Powershell thinks for a moment, then displays a new prompt. Beyond Compare never launches. I've verified the path is correct by launching Beyond Compare from both Powershell and the command prompt.

What do I need to change to get this to work?

Answer 1

So it appears I had everything set up correctly, but wasn't using the correct command to let git know which files I wanted to compare.

By changing this:

git difftool Readme.txt

To this:

git difftool head~2 Readme.txt

I'm prompted to launch bc3 and the last 2 versions of my file are displayed in the left and right panes of bc3.