SDIFF(1)SDIFF(1)NAMEsdiff - print differences between two files side-by-side
SYNOPSISsdiff [-l] [-s] [-o output] [-w n] filename1 filename2
DESCRIPTIONsdiff uses the output of the diff command to produce a side-by-side
listing of two files indicating lines that are different. Lines of the
two files are printed with a blank gutter between them if the lines are
identical, a < in the gutter if the line appears only in filename1, a >
in the gutter if the line appears only in filename2, and a | for lines
that are different. (See the EXAMPLES section below.)
OPTIONS-l
Print only the left side of any lines that are identi‐
cal.to
-s
Do not print identical lines.
-o output
Use the argument output as the name of a third file that
is created as a user-controlled merge of filename1 and
filename2. Identical lines of filename1 and filename2 are
copied to output. Sets of differences, as produced by
diff, are printed; where a set of differences share a
common gutter character. After printing each set of dif‐
ferences, sdiff prompts the user with a % and waits for
one of the following user-typed commands:
l
Append the left column to the output file.
r
Append the right column to the output file.
s
Turn on silent mode; do not print identical lines.
v
Turn off silent mode.
e l
Call the editor with the left column.
e r
Call the editor with the right column.
e b
Call the editor with the concatenation of left and
right.
e
Call the editor with a zero length file.
q
Exit from the program.
On exit from the editor, the resulting file is concate‐
nated to the end of the output file.
-w n
Use the argument n as the width of the output line. The
default line length is 130 characters.
USAGE
See largefile(5) for the description of the behavior of sdiff when
encountering files greater than or equal to 2 Gbyte ( 2^31 bytes).
EXAMPLES
Example 1 An example of the sdiff command.
A sample output of sdiff follows.
x | y
a a
b <
c <
d d
> c
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
If any of the LC_* variables ( LC_CTYPE, LC_MESSAGES, LC_TIME, LC_COL‐
LATE, LC_NUMERIC, and LC_MONETARY ) (see environ(5)) are not set in the
environment, the operational behavior of sdiff for each corresponding
locale category is determined by the value of the LANG environment
variable. If LC_ALL is set, its contents are used to override both the
LANG and the other LC_* variables. If none of the above variables is
set in the environment, the "C" locale determines how sdiff behaves.
LC_CTYPE
Determines how sdiff handles characters. When LC_CTYPE is
set to a valid value, sdiff can display and handle text
and filenames containing valid characters for that locale.
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
┌───────────────┬─────────────────┐
│ATTRIBUTE TYPE │ ATTRIBUTE VALUE │
├───────────────┼─────────────────┤
│CSI │ Enabled │
└───────────────┴─────────────────┘
SEE ALSOdiff(1), ed(1), attributes(5), environ(5), largefile(5)
Dec 20, 1996 SDIFF(1)
