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DIFF(1)			  BSD General Commands Manual		       DIFF(1)

NAME
     diff — differential file and directory comparator

SYNOPSIS
     diff [-abdilpqTtw] [-I pattern] [-c | -e | -f | -n | -u] [-L label] file1
	  file2
     diff [-abdilpqTtw] [-I pattern] [-L label] -C [number] file1 file2
     diff [-abdilqtw] [-I pattern] -D string file1 file2
     diff [-abdilpqTtw] [-I pattern] [-L label] -U number file1 file2
     diff [-abdilNPpqrsTtw] [-I pattern] [-c | -e | -f | -n | -u] [-L label]
	  [-S name] [-X file] [-x pattern] dir1 dir2
     diff [-v]

DESCRIPTION
     The diff utility compares the contents of file1 and file2 and writes to
     the standard output the list of changes necessary to convert one file
     into the other.  No output is produced if the files are identical.

     Output options (mutually exclusive):

     -C [number, --context=[number]]
	     Like -c but produces a diff with number lines of context.

     -c	     Produces a diff with 3 lines of context.  With -c the output for‐
	     mat is modified slightly: the output begins with identification
	     of the files involved and their creation dates and then each
	     change is separated by a line with fifteen *'s.  The lines
	     removed from file1 are marked with ‘- ’; those added to file2 are
	     marked ‘+ ’.  Lines which are changed from one file to the other
	     are marked in both files with ‘! ’.  Changes which lie within 3
	     lines of each other are grouped together on output.

     -D string, --ifdef=string
	     Creates a merged version of file1 and file2 on the standard out‐
	     put, with C preprocessor controls included so that a compilation
	     of the result without defining string is equivalent to compiling
	     file1, while defining string will yield file2.

     -e, --ed
	     Produces output in a form suitable as input for the editor util‐
	     ity, ed(1), which can then be used to convert file1 into file2.

	     Extra commands are added to the output when comparing directories
	     with -e, so that the result is a sh(1) script for converting text
	     files which are common to the two directories from their state in
	     dir1 to their state in dir2.

     -f	     Identical output to that of the -e flag, but in reverse order.
	     It cannot be digested by ed(1).

     -n, --rcs
	     Produces a script similar to that of -e, but in the opposite
	     order and with a count of changed lines on each insert or delete
	     command.  This is the form used by rcsdiff(1).

     -q, --brief
	     Just print a line when the files differ.  Does not output a list
	     of changes.

     -U [number, --unified=[number]]
	     Like -u but produces a diff with number lines of context.

     -u	     Produces a unified diff with 3 lines of context.  A unified diff
	     is similar to the context diff produced by the -c option.	How‐
	     ever, unlike with -c, all lines to be changed (added and/or
	     removed) are present in a single section.

     Comparison options:

     -a, --text
	     Treat all files as ASCII text.  Normally diff will simply print
	     “Binary files ... differ” if files contain binary characters.
	     Use of this option forces diff to produce a diff.

     -b, --ignore-space-change
	     Causes trailing blanks (spaces and tabs) to be ignored, and other
	     strings of blanks to compare equal.

     -d, --minimal
	     Try very hard to produce a diff as small as possible.  This may
	     consume a lot of processing power and memory when processing
	     large files with many changes.

     -I pattern, --ignore-matching-lines=pattern
	     Ignores changes, insertions, and deletions whose lines match the
	     extended regular expression pattern.  Multiple -I patterns may be
	     specified.	 All lines in the change must match some pattern for
	     the change to be ignored.	See re_format(7) for more information
	     on regular expression patterns.

     -i, --ignore-case
	     Ignores the case of letters.  E.g., “A” will compare equal to
	     “a”.

     -L label
	     Print label instead of the first (and second, if this option is
	     specified twice) file name and time in the context or unified
	     diff header.

     -l, --paginate
	     Long output format; each text file diff´d is piped through pr(1)
	     to paginate it; other differences are remembered and summarized
	     after all text file differences are reported.

     -p, --show-c-function
	     With unified and context diffs, show with each change the first
	     40 characters of the last line before the context beginning with
	     a letter, an underscore or a dollar sign.	For C source code fol‐
	     lowing standard layout conventions, this will show the prototype
	     of the function the change applies to.

     -T, --initial-tab
	     Print a tab rather than a space before the rest of the line for
	     the normal, context or unified output formats.  This makes the
	     alignment of tabs in the line consistent.

     -t, --expand-tabs
	     Will expand tabs in output lines.	Normal or -c output adds char‐
	     acter(s) to the front of each line which may screw up the inden‐
	     tation of the original source lines and make the output listing
	     difficult to interpret.  This option will preserve the original
	     source's indentation.

     -w, --ignore-all-space
	     Is similar to -b but causes whitespace (blanks and tabs) to be
	     totally ignored.  E.g., “if ( a == b )” will compare equal to
	     “if(a==b)”.

     Directory comparison options:

     -N, --new-file
	     If a file is found in only one directory, act as if it was found
	     in the other directory too but was of zero size.

     -P	     If a file is found only in dir2, act as if it was found in dir1
	     too but was of zero size.

     -r, --recursive
	     Causes application of diff recursively to common sub7 directories
	     encountered.

     -S name, -starting-file=name
	     Re-starts a directory diff in the middle, beginning with file
	     name.

     -s, --report-identical-files
	     Causes diff to report files which are the same, which are other‐
	     wise not mentioned.

     -X file, --exclude-from=file
	     Exclude files and subdirectories from comparison whose basenames
	     match lines in file.  Multiple -X options may be specified.

     -x pattern, --exclude=pattern
	     Exclude files and subdirectories from comparison whose basenames
	     match pattern.  Patterns are matched using shell-style globbing
	     via fnmatch(3).  Multiple -x options may be specified.

     -v, --version
	     Print version ino.

     If both arguments are directories, diff sorts the contents of the direc‐
     tories by name, and then runs the regular file diff algorithm, producing
     a change list, on text files which are different.	Binary files which
     differ, common subdirectories, and files which appear in only one direc‐
     tory are described as such.  In directory mode only regular files and
     directories are compared.	If a non-regular file such as a device special
     file or FIFO is encountered, a diagnostic message is printed.

     If only one of file1 and file2 is a directory, diff is 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.

     If either file1 or file2 is ‘-’, the standard input is used in its place.

   Output Style
     The default (without -e, -c, or -n options) output contains lines of
     these forms, where XX, YY, ZZ, QQ are line numbers respective of file
     order.

     XXaYY	  At (the end of) line XX of file1, append the contents of
		  line YY of file2 to make them equal.
     XXaYY,ZZ	  Same as above, but append the range of lines, YY through ZZ
		  of file2 to line XX of file1.
     XXdYY	  At line XX delete the line.  The value YY tells to which
		  line the change would bring file1 in line with file1.
     XX,YYdZZ	  Delete the range of lines XX through YY in file1.
     XXcYY	  Change the line XX in file1 to the line YY in file2.
     XX,YYcZZ	  Replace the range of specified lines with the line ZZ.
     XX,YYcZZ,QQ  Replace the range XX,YY from file1 with the range ZZ,QQ from
		  file2.

     These lines resemble ed(1) subcommands to convert file1 into file2.  The
     line numbers before the action letters pertain to file1; those after per‐
     tain to file2.  Thus, by exchanging a for d and reading the line in
     reverse order, one can also determine how to convert file2 into file1.
     As in ed(1), identical pairs (where num1 = num2) are abbreviated as a
     single number.

ENVIRONMENT
     TMPDIR  If the environment variable TMPDIR exists, diff will use the
	     directory specified by TMPDIR as the temporary directory.

FILES
     /tmp/diff.XXXXXXXX	 Temporary file used when comparing a device or the
			 standard input.  Note that the temporary file is
			 unlinked as soon as it is created so it will not show
			 up in a directory listing.

DIAGNOSTICS
     The diff utility exits with one of the following values:

	   0	   No differences were found.
	   1	   Differences were found.
	   >1	   An error occurred.

SEE ALSO
     cmp(1), comm(1), diff3(1), ed(1), pr(1), sdiff(1), fnmatch(3),
     re_format(7)

STANDARDS
     The diff utility is compliant with the St -p1003.1-2004 specification.

     The flags [-aDdIiLlNnPpqSsTtUuwXx] are extensions to that specification.

HISTORY
     A diff command appeared in Version 6 AT&T UNIX.

BUGS
     When comparing directories with the -b, -w or -i options specified, diff
     first compares the files ala cmp(1), and then decides to run the diff
     algorithm if they are not equal.  This may cause a small amount of spuri‐
     ous output if the files then turn out to be identical because the only
     differences are insignificant whitespace or case differences.

BSD				  Apr 7, 2008				   BSD
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