DIFF

 

NAME

diff – compare files line by line  

SYNOPSIS

diff [OPTION]… FILES  

DESCRIPTION

Compare FILES line by line.

Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.

–normal

output a normal diff (the default)

-q, –brief

report only when files differ

-s, –report-identical-files

report when two files are the same

-c, -C NUM, –context[=NUM]

output NUM (default 3) lines of copied context

-u, -U NUM, –unified[=NUM]

output NUM (default 3) lines of unified context

-e, –ed

output an ed script

-n, –rcs

output an RCS format diff

-y, –side-by-side

output in two columns

-W, –width=NUM

output at most NUM (default 130) print columns

–left-column

output only the left column of common lines

–suppress-common-lines

do not output common lines

-p, –show-c-function

show which C function each change is in

-F, –show-function-line=RE

show the most recent line matching RE

–label LABEL

use LABEL instead of file name (can be repeated)

-t, –expand-tabs

expand tabs to spaces in output

-T, –initial-tab

make tabs line up by prepending a tab

–tabsize=NUM

tab stops every NUM (default 8) print columns

–suppress-blank-empty

suppress space or tab before empty output lines

-l, –paginate

pass output through `pr’ to paginate it

-r, –recursive

recursively compare any subdirectories found

-N, –new-file

treat absent files as empty

–unidirectional-new-file

treat absent first files as empty

–ignore-file-name-case

ignore case when comparing file names

–no-ignore-file-name-case

consider case when comparing file names

-x, –exclude=PAT

exclude files that match PAT

-X, –exclude-from=FILE

exclude files that match any pattern in FILE

-S, –starting-file=FILE

start with FILE when comparing directories

–from-file=FILE1

compare FILE1 to all operands; FILE1 can be a directory

–to-file=FILE2

compare all operands to FILE2; FILE2 can be a directory

-i, –ignore-case

ignore case differences in file contents

-E, –ignore-tab-expansion

ignore changes due to tab expansion

-Z, –ignore-trailing-space

ignore white space at line end

-b, –ignore-space-change

ignore changes in the amount of white space

-w, –ignore-all-space

ignore all white space

-B, –ignore-blank-lines

ignore changes whose lines are all blank

-I, –ignore-matching-lines=RE

ignore changes whose lines all match RE

-a, –text

treat all files as text

–strip-trailing-cr

strip trailing carriage return on input

-D, –ifdef=NAME

output merged file with `#ifdef NAME’ diffs

–GTYPE-group-format=GFMT

format GTYPE input groups with GFMT

–line-format=LFMT

format all input lines with LFMT

–LTYPE-line-format=LFMT

format LTYPE input lines with LFMT

These format options provide fine-grained control over the output

of diff, generalizing -D/–ifdef.

LTYPE is `old’, `new’, or `unchanged’.

GTYPE is LTYPE or `changed’.

GFMT (only) may contain:

%<

lines from FILE1

%>

lines from FILE2

%=

lines common to FILE1 and FILE2

%[-][WIDTH][.[PREC]]{doxX}LETTER

printf-style spec for LETTER

LETTERs are as follows for new group, lower case for old group:

F

first line number

L

last line number

N

number of lines = L-F+1

E

F-1

M

L+1

%(A=B?T:E)

if A equals B then T else E

LFMT (only) may contain:

%L

contents of line

%l

contents of line, excluding any trailing newline

%[-][WIDTH][.[PREC]]{doxX}n

printf-style spec for input line number

Both GFMT and LFMT may contain:

%%

%

%c’C’

the single character C

%c’\OOO’

the character with octal code OOO

C

the character C (other characters represent themselves)

-d, –minimal

try hard to find a smaller set of changes

–horizon-lines=NUM

keep NUM lines of the common prefix and suffix

–speed-large-files

assume large files and many scattered small changes

–help

display this help and exit

-v, –version

output version information and exit

FILES are `FILE1 FILE2′ or `DIR1 DIR2′ or `DIR FILE…’ or `FILE… DIR’. If –from-file or –to-file is given, there are no restrictions on FILE(s). If a FILE is `-‘, read standard input. Exit status is 0 if inputs are the same, 1 if different, 2 if trouble.