nildiff 1.16.8

nildiff

.NET Global Tool for folder diff and release validation. Compares two folders and generates structured diff reports.

Install

dotnet tool install -g nildiff

Usage

# Compare two folders
nildiff "/path/to/old-folder" "/path/to/new-folder" "my-comparison" --no-pause

# Or omit the label to auto-generate a high-resolution timestamp
nildiff "/path/to/old-folder" "/path/to/new-folder" --no-pause

# Interactive wizard mode
nildiff --wizard

# Show help
nildiff --help

Output

Key Feature: IL-Level Comparison

For .NET assemblies (.dll, .exe), nildiff compares at the IL level rather than binary level, filtering out build-specific noise (MVID, timestamps). Functionally identical assemblies are reported as "unchanged" even when binary hashes differ due to non-deterministic builds.

Configuration

The tool works out of the box with default settings. To customize behavior, create a config.json and pass it via --config:

nildiff "/old" "/new" "label" --config /path/to/config.json

When the report label is omitted, nildiff auto-generates a high-resolution timestamp label. Tokens beginning with -- are treated as options, not report labels.

Individual settings can also be overridden via FOLDERDIFF_* environment variables (e.g. FOLDERDIFF_MAXPARALLELISM=8). For maintainer-only IL noise suppression, --creator applies the predefined buildserver-winforms ILIgnoreLineContainingStrings profile. See the annotated sample config for all available settings.

The default config.json location varies by OS:

Note: The default config in the tool store is overwritten on tool update. For persistent customization, keep your own config.json and use --config.

Optional: IL Disassembler

For IL-level comparison, install an IL disassembler:

dotnet tool install -g dotnet-ildasm

Without an IL disassembler, .NET assemblies are compared by SHA256 hash only.

Requirements

• .NET SDK 8.0 or later

License

MIT