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diff(1)								       diff(1)

NAME
       diff - differential file and directory comparator

SYNOPSIS
       n] name] dir1 dir2

       n] name] file1 file2

       string] file1 file2

DESCRIPTION
   Comparing Directories
       If  both	 arguments are directories, sorts the contents of the directo‐
       ries by name, then runs the regular file algorithm (described below) on
       text files that have the same name in each directory but are different.
       Binary files that differ, common subdirectories, and files that	appear
       in only one directory are listed.  When comparing directories, the fol‐
       lowing options are recognized:

	      Long output format; each text file
			  is piped through to paginate it (see pr(1)).	 Other
			  differences  are remembered and summarized after all
			  text file differences are reported.

	      Applies	  recursively to common subdirectories encountered.

	      reports files that are identical but otherwise not mentioned.

	      Starts a directory
			  in the middle of  the	 sorted	 directory,  beginning
			  with file name.

   Comparing Files
       When  run  on  regular files, and when comparing text files that differ
       during directory comparison, tells what lines must be  changed  in  the
       files  to  bring	 them into agreement.  usually finds a smallest suffi‐
       cient set of file differences.  However, it can be misled by lines con‐
       taining	very  few characters or by other situations.  If neither file1
       nor file2 is a directory, either can be specified as in which case  the
       standard input is used.	If file1 is a directory, a file in that direc‐
       tory whose filename is the same as the filename of file2 is  used  (and
       vice versa).

       There are several options for output format.  The default output format
       contains lines resembling the following:

       These lines resemble commands to convert file1 into file2.  The numbers
       after  the  letters  pertain  to file2.	In fact, by exchanging for and
       reading backwards one may ascertain equally how to convert  file2  into
       file1.  As in identical 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

       Except for or which can be given with any of the others, the  following
       options are mutually exclusive:

	      Produce a script of
		       and  commands  for  the	editor suitable for recreating
		       file2 from file1.  Extra commands are added to the out‐
		       put  when comparing directories with so that the result
		       is a shell script for converting text files  common  to
		       the  two	 directories from their state in dir1 to their
		       state in dir2.

	      Produce a script similar to that of the
		       option that is not useful with but is more readable  by
		       humans.

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

	      Produce a difference list with 3 lines of context.
		       modifies	 the output format slightly: the output begins
		       with identification of the files involved, followed  by
		       their  creation	dates, then each change separated by a
		       line containing about twelve  asterisks	Lines  removed
		       from file1 are marked with and lines added to file2 are
		       marked Lines that change from one file to the other are
		       marked  in both files with with Changes that lie within
		       3 lines of each other in the file are grouped  together
		       on output.

	      Output format similar to
		       but with n lines of context.

	      Do a fast, half-hearted job.
		       This option works only when changed stretches are short
		       and well separated, but can be used on files of	unlim‐
		       ited length.

	      Create a merged version of
		       file1  and  file2  on  the standard output, with C pre‐
		       processor controls included so that  a  compilation  of
		       the  result  without  defining  string is equivalent to
		       compiling file1, while compiling the result with string
		       defined is equivalent to compiling file2.

	      Ignore trailing
		       space  characters,  except  newline character and treat
		       other string of blanks as equal.	 For example, and  are
		       treated as equal.

	      Ignore all
		       space  characters, except newline character.  For exam‐
		       ple, and are treated as equal.

	      Ignores uppercase/lowercase differences.
		       Thus is treated the same as

	      Expand tabs in output lines.
		       Normal or output adds one or  more  characters  to  the
		       front of each line.  Resulting misalignment of indenta‐
		       tion in the original source lines can make  the	output
		       listing	difficult to interpret.	 This option preserves
		       original source file indentation.

EXTERNAL INFLUENCES
   Environment Variables
       determines the locale to use for the locale categories  when  both  and
       the corresponding environment variable (beginning with do not specify a
       locale.	If is not set or is set to the empty string, a default of  "C"
       (see lang(5)) is used.

       determines the space characters for the command, and the interpretation
       of text within file as single- and/or multi-byte characters.

       determines the language in which messages are displayed.

       If any internationalization variable contains an invalid	 setting,  and
       behave  as  if  all internationalization variables are set to "C".  See
       environ(5).

   International Code Set Support
       Single- and multi-byte character	 code  sets  are  supported  with  the
       exception  that and do not recognize multi-byte alternative space char‐
       acters.

RETURN VALUE
       Upon completion, returns with one of the following exit values:

	       0      No differences were found.

	       1      Differences were found.

	      >1      An error occurred.

EXAMPLES
       The following command creates a script file

       is added to the end of the script in order to save the file:

       The script file can then be used to create the file from the file using
       the editor in the following manner:

       The  following  command	produces the difference output with 2 lines of
       context information before and after the line that was different:

       The following command ignores all blanks and tabs  and  ignores	upper‐
       case-lowercase differences.

WARNINGS
       Editing	scripts	 produced  by  the  or option are naive about creating
       lines consisting of a single dot

       When comparing directories with the or options  specified,  first  com‐
       pares  the  files in the same manner as then runs the algorithm if they
       are not equal.  This may cause a small amount of spurious output if the
       files  are  identical  except for insignificant blank strings or upper‐
       case/lowercase differences.

       The default algorithm requires memory allocation of roughly  six	 times
       the  size  of the file.	If sufficient memory is not available for han‐
       dling large files, the option or can be used (see bdiff(1)).

       With other options if sufficient memory is not available,  then	either
       the or values can be increased.

       When  run  on  directories  with	 the option, recursively descends sub-
       trees.  When comparing deep multi-level directories, more memory may be
       required than is currently available on the system.  The amount of mem‐
       ory required depends on the depth of recursion  and  the	 size  of  the
       files.

AUTHOR
       was developed by AT&T, the University of California, Berkeley, and HP.

FILES
       used by			     option

SEE ALSO
       bdiff(1),  cmp(1),  comm(1),  diff3(1),	diffmk(1),  dircmp(1),	ed(1),
       more(1), nroff(1), rcsdiff(1), sccsdiff(1), sdiff(1), terminfo(4).

STANDARDS CONFORMANCE
								       diff(1)
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