SunOS man pages : diff (1)
User Commands diff(1)
NAME
diff - display line-by-line differences between pairs of
text files
SYNOPSIS
diff [ -bitw ] [ -c | -e | -f | -h | -n ] file1 file2
diff [ -bitw ] [ -C number ] file1 file2
diff [ -bitw ] [ -D string ] file1 file2
diff [ -bitw ] [ -c | -e | -f | -h | -n ] [ -l ] [ -r
] [ -s ] [ -S name ] directory1 directory2
DESCRIPTION
The diff utility will compare the contents of file1 and
file2 and write to standard output a list of changes neces-
sary to convert file1 into file2. This list should be
minimal. No output will be produced if the files are identi-
cal.
The normal output contains lines of these forms:
n17 a n3,n4
n1,n2 d n3
n1,n2 c n3,n4
where n1 and n2 represent lines file1 and n3 and n4
represent lines in file2 These lines resemble ed(1) commands
to convert file1 to file2. By exchanging a for d and reading
backward, file2 can be converted to file1. As in ed, identi-
cal pairs, where n1=n2 or n3=n4, are abbreviated as a single
number.
Following each of these lines come all the lines that are
affected in the first file flagged by `<', then all the
lines that are affected in the second file flagged by `>'.
OPTIONS
-b Ignores trailing blanks (spaces and tabs) and treats
other strings of blanks as equivalent.
-i Ignores the case of letters; for example, `A' will
compare equal to `a'.
-t Expands TAB characters in output lines. Normal or -c
output adds character(s) to the front of each line
that may adversely affect the indentation of the ori-
ginal source lines and make the output lines difficult
to interpret. This option will preserve the original
source's indentation.
SunOS 5.8 Last change: 20 Dec 1996 1
User Commands diff(1)
-w Ignores all blanks (SPACE and TAB characters) and
treats all other strings of blanks as equivalent; for
example, `if ( a == b )' will compare equal to
`if(a==b)'.
The following options are mutually exclusive:
-c Produces a listing of differences with three lines of
context. With this option output format is modified
slightly: output begins with identification of the
files involved and their creation dates, then each
change is separated by a line with a dozen *'s. The
lines removed from file1 are marked with '-'; those
added to file2 are marked '+'. Lines that are changed
from one file to the other are marked in both files
with '!'.
-C number
Produces a listing of differences identical to that
produced by -c with number lines of context.
-e Produces a script of only a, c, and d commands for the
editor ed, which will recreate file2 from file1. In
connection with -e, the following shell program may
help maintain multiple versions of a file. Only an
ancestral file ($1) and a chain of version-to-version
ed scripts ($2,$3,...) made by diff need be on hand. A
``latest version'' appears on the standard output.
(shift; cat $*; echo '1,$p') | ed - $1
Except in rare circumstances, diff finds a smallest suffi-
cient set of file differences.
-f Produces a similar script, not useful with ed, in the
opposite order.
-h Does a fast, half-hearted job. It works only when
changed stretches are short and well separated, but
does work on files of unlimited length. Options -c,
-e, -f, and -n are unavailable with -h. diff does not
descend into directories with this option.
-n Produces a script similar to -e, but in the opposite
order and with a count of changed lines on each insert
or delete command.
-D string
Creates a merged version of file1 and file2 with C
preprocessor controls included so that a compilation
of the result without defining string is equivalent to
SunOS 5.8 Last change: 20 Dec 1996 2
User Commands diff(1)
compiling file1, while defining string will yield
file2.
The following options are used for comparing directories:
-l Produce output in long format. Before the diff, each
text file is piped through pr(1) to paginate it. Other
differences are remembered and summarized after all
text file differences are reported.
-r Applies diff recursively to common subdirectories
encountered.
-s Reports files that are the identical; these would not
otherwise be mentioned.
-S name
Starts a directory diff in the middle, beginning with
the file name.
OPERANDS
The following operands are supported:
file1, file2
A path name of a file or directory to be compared. If
either file1 or file2 is -, the standard input will be
used in its place.
directory1, directory2
A path name of a directory to be compared.
If only one of file1 and file2 is a directory, diff will be
applied to the non-directory file and the file contained in
the directory file with a filename that is the same as the
last component of the non-directory file.
USAGE
See largefile(5) for the description of the behavior of diff
when encountering files greater than or equal to 2 Gbyte ( 2
**31 bytes).
EXAMPLES
Example 1: Example of the diff command.
If dir1 is a directory containing a directory named x, dir2
is a directory containing a directory named x, dir1/x and
dir2/x both contain files named date.out, and dir2/x con-
tains a file named y, the command:
example% diff -r dir1 dir2
could produce output similar to:
SunOS 5.8 Last change: 20 Dec 1996 3
User Commands diff(1)
Common subdirectories: dir1/x and dir2/x
Only in dir2/x: y
diff -r dir1/x/date.out dir2/x/date.out
1c1
< Mon Jul 2 13:12:16 PDT 1990
---
> Tue Jun 19 21:41:39 PDT 1990
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
See environ(5) for descriptions of the following environment
variables that affect the execution of diff: LC_CTYPE,
LC_MESSAGES, LC_TIME, and NLSPATH.
TZ Determine the locale for affecting the timezone used
for calculating file timestamps written with the -C
and -c options.
EXIT STATUS
The following exit values are returned:
0 No differences were found.
1 Differences were found.
>1 An error occurred.
FILES
/tmp/d?????
temporary file used for comparison
/usr/lib/diffh
executable file for -h option
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attri-
butes:
____________________________________________________________
| ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
|_____________________________|_____________________________|
| Availability | SUNWesu |
|_____________________________|_____________________________|
| CSI | Enabled |
|_____________________________|_____________________________|
SunOS 5.8 Last change: 20 Dec 1996 4
User Commands diff(1)
SEE ALSO
bdiff(1), cmp(1), comm(1), dircmp(1), ed(1), pr(1), sdiff(
1), attributes(5), environ(5), largefile(5)
NOTES
Editing scripts produced under the -e or -f options are
naive about creating lines consisting of a single period
(.).
Missing NEWLINE at end of file indicates that the last line
of the file in question did not have a NEWLINE. If the lines
are different, they will be flagged and output; although the
output will seem to indicate they are the same.
SunOS 5.8 Last change: 20 Dec 1996 5
|
 |
|
|
