MERGE(1) UNIX Programmer's Manual MERGE(1)NAMEmerge - three-way file mergeSYNOPSISmerge [ options ] file1 file2 file3
DESCRIPTIONmerge incorporates all changes that lead from file2 to file3
into file1. The result ordinarily goes into file1. merge is
useful for combining separate changes to an original. Sup-
pose file2 is the original, and both file1 and file3 are
modifications of file2. Then merge combines both changes.
A conflict occurs if both file1 and file3 have changes in a
common segment of lines. If a conflict is found, merge nor-
mally outputs a warning and brackets the conflict with
<<<<<<< and >>>>>>> lines. A typical conflict will look like
this:
<<<<<<< file A
lines in file A
=======
lines in file B
>>>>>>> file B
If there are conflicts, the user should edit the result and
delete one of the alternatives.
OPTIONS-A Output conflicts using the -A style of diff3(1), if
supported by diff3. This merges all changes leading
from file2 to file3 into file1, and generates the most
verbose output.
-E, -e
These options specify conflict styles that generate
less information than -A. See diff3(1) for details. The
default is -E. With -e, merge does not warn about con-
flicts.
-L label
This option may be given up to three times, and speci-
fies labels to be used in place of the corresponding
file names in conflict reports. That is,
merge-L x -L y -L z a b c generates output that looks
like it came from files x, y and z instead of from
files a, b and c.
-p Send results to standard output instead of overwriting
file1.
-q Quiet; do not warn about conflicts. -V Print 's version
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MERGE(1) UNIX Programmer's Manual MERGE(1)
number.
DIAGNOSTICS
Exit status is 0 for no conflicts, 1 for some conflicts, 2
for trouble.
IDENTIFICATION
Author: Walter F. Tichy.
Manual Page Revision: 5.7; Release Date: 1995/06/01.
Copyright (C) 1982, 1988, 1989 Walter F. Tichy.
Copyright (C) 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995 Paul
Eggert.
SEE ALSOdiff3(1), diff(1), rcsmerge(1), co(1).
BUGS
It normally does not make sense to merge binary files as if
they were text, but merge tries to do it anyway.
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