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1 .\" $NetBSD$
2 .\"
3 .\" DO NOT MODIFY THIS FILE! It was generated by help2man 1.27.
4 .TH DIFF "1" "April 2002" "diffutils 2.8.1" "User Commands"
5 .SH NAME
6 diff \- compare files line by line
7 .SH SYNOPSIS
8 .B diff
9 [\fIOPTION\fR]... \fIFILES\fR
10 .SH DESCRIPTION
11 Compare files line by line.
12 .TP
13 \fB\-i\fR \fB\-\-ignore\-case\fR
14 Ignore case differences in file contents.
15 .TP
16 \fB\-\-ignore\-file\-name\-case\fR
17 Ignore case when comparing file names.
18 .TP
19 \fB\-\-no\-ignore\-file\-name\-case\fR
20 Consider case when comparing file names.
21 .TP
22 \fB\-E\fR \fB\-\-ignore\-tab\-expansion\fR
23 Ignore changes due to tab expansion.
24 .TP
25 \fB\-b\fR \fB\-\-ignore\-space\-change\fR
26 Ignore changes in the amount of white space.
27 .TP
28 \fB\-w\fR \fB\-\-ignore\-all\-space\fR
29 Ignore all white space.
30 .TP
31 \fB\-B\fR \fB\-\-ignore\-blank\-lines\fR
32 Ignore changes whose lines are all blank.
33 .TP
34 \fB\-I\fR RE \fB\-\-ignore\-matching\-lines\fR=\fIRE\fR
35 Ignore changes whose lines all match RE.
36 .TP
37 \fB\-\-strip\-trailing\-cr\fR
38 Strip trailing carriage return on input.
39 .TP
40 \fB\-a\fR \fB\-\-text\fR
41 Treat all files as text.
42 .TP
43 \fB\-c\fR \fB\-C\fR NUM \fB\-\-context\fR[=\fINUM\fR]
44 Output NUM (default 3) lines of copied context.
45 .TP
46 \fB\-u\fR \fB\-U\fR NUM \fB\-\-unified\fR[=\fINUM\fR]
47 Output NUM (default 3) lines of unified context.
48 .TP
49 \fB\-\-label\fR LABEL
50 Use LABEL instead of file name.
51 .TP
52 \fB\-p\fR \fB\-\-show\-c\-function\fR
53 Show which C function each change is in.
54 .TP
55 \fB\-F\fR RE \fB\-\-show\-function\-line\fR=\fIRE\fR
56 Show the most recent line matching RE.
57 .TP
58 \fB\-q\fR \fB\-\-brief\fR
59 Output only whether files differ.
60 .TP
61 \fB\-e\fR \fB\-\-ed\fR
62 Output an ed script.
63 .TP
64 \fB\-\-normal\fR
65 Output a normal diff.
66 .TP
67 \fB\-n\fR \fB\-\-rcs\fR
68 Output an RCS format diff.
69 .TP
70 \fB\-y\fR \fB\-\-side\-by\-side\fR
71 Output in two columns.
72 .TP
73 \fB\-W\fR NUM \fB\-\-width\fR=\fINUM\fR
74 Output at most NUM (default 130) print columns.
75 .TP
76 \fB\-\-left\-column\fR
77 Output only the left column of common lines.
78 .TP
79 \fB\-\-suppress\-common\-lines\fR
80 Do not output common lines.
81 .TP
82 \fB\-D\fR NAME \fB\-\-ifdef\fR=\fINAME\fR
83 Output merged file to show `#ifdef NAME' diffs.
84 .TP
85 \fB\-\-GTYPE\-group\-format\fR=\fIGFMT\fR
86 Similar, but format GTYPE input groups with GFMT.
87 .TP
88 \fB\-\-line\-format\fR=\fILFMT\fR
89 Similar, but format all input lines with LFMT.
90 .TP
91 \fB\-\-LTYPE\-line\-format\fR=\fILFMT\fR
92 Similar, but format LTYPE input lines with LFMT.
93 .TP
94 LTYPE is `old', `new', or `unchanged'.
95 GTYPE is LTYPE or `changed'.
96 .IP
97 GFMT may contain:
98 .TP
99 %<
100 lines from FILE1
101 .TP
102 %>
103 lines from FILE2
104 .TP
105 %=
106 lines common to FILE1 and FILE2
107 .TP
108 %[-][WIDTH][.[PREC]]{doxX}LETTER
109 printf-style spec for LETTER
110 .IP
111 LETTERs are as follows for new group, lower case for old group:
112 .TP
113 F
114 first line number
115 .TP
116 L
117 last line number
118 .TP
119 N
120 number of lines = L-F+1
121 .TP
122 E
123 F-1
124 .TP
125 M
126 L+1
127 .IP
128 LFMT may contain:
129 .TP
130 %L
131 contents of line
132 .TP
133 %l
134 contents of line, excluding any trailing newline
135 .TP
136 %[-][WIDTH][.[PREC]]{doxX}n
137 printf-style spec for input line number
138 .IP
139 Either GFMT or LFMT may contain:
140 .TP
141 %%
142 %
143 .TP
144 %c'C'
145 the single character C
146 .TP
147 %c'\eOOO'
148 the character with octal code OOO
149 .TP
150 \fB\-l\fR \fB\-\-paginate\fR
151 Pass the output through `pr' to paginate it.
152 .TP
153 \fB\-t\fR \fB\-\-expand\-tabs\fR
154 Expand tabs to spaces in output.
155 .TP
156 \fB\-T\fR \fB\-\-initial\-tab\fR
157 Make tabs line up by prepending a tab.
158 .TP
159 \fB\-r\fR \fB\-\-recursive\fR
160 Recursively compare any subdirectories found.
161 .TP
162 \fB\-N\fR \fB\-\-new\-file\fR
163 Treat absent files as empty.
164 .TP
165 \fB\-\-unidirectional\-new\-file\fR
166 Treat absent first files as empty.
167 .TP
168 \fB\-s\fR \fB\-\-report\-identical\-files\fR
169 Report when two files are the same.
170 .TP
171 \fB\-x\fR PAT \fB\-\-exclude\fR=\fIPAT\fR
172 Exclude files that match PAT.
173 .TP
174 \fB\-X\fR FILE \fB\-\-exclude\-from\fR=\fIFILE\fR
175 Exclude files that match any pattern in FILE.
176 .TP
177 \fB\-S\fR FILE \fB\-\-starting\-file\fR=\fIFILE\fR
178 Start with FILE when comparing directories.
179 .TP
180 \fB\-\-from\-file\fR=\fIFILE1\fR
181 Compare FILE1 to all operands. FILE1 can be a directory.
182 .TP
183 \fB\-\-to\-file\fR=\fIFILE2\fR
184 Compare all operands to FILE2. FILE2 can be a directory.
185 .TP
186 \fB\-\-horizon\-lines\fR=\fINUM\fR
187 Keep NUM lines of the common prefix and suffix.
188 .TP
189 \fB\-d\fR \fB\-\-minimal\fR
190 Try hard to find a smaller set of changes.
191 .TP
192 \fB\-\-speed\-large\-files\fR
193 Assume large files and many scattered small changes.
194 .TP
195 \fB\-v\fR \fB\-\-version\fR
196 Output version info.
197 .TP
198 \fB\-\-help\fR
199 Output this help.
200 .PP
201 FILES are `FILE1 FILE2' or `DIR1 DIR2' or `DIR FILE...' or `FILE... DIR'.
202 If \fB\-\-from\-file\fR or \fB\-\-to\-file\fR is given, there are no restrictions on FILES.
203 If a FILE is `-', read standard input.
204 .SH AUTHOR
205 Written by Paul Eggert, Mike Haertel, David Hayes,
206 Richard Stallman, and Len Tower.
207 .SH "REPORTING BUGS"
208 Report bugs to <bug-gnu-utils@gnu.org>.
209 .SH COPYRIGHT
210 Copyright \(co 2002 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
211 .PP
212 This program comes with NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
213 You may redistribute copies of this program
214 under the terms of the GNU General Public License.
215 For more information about these matters, see the file named COPYING.
216 .SH "SEE ALSO"
217 The full documentation for
218 .B diff
219 is maintained as a Texinfo manual. If the
220 .B info
221 and
222 .B diff
223 programs are properly installed at your site, the command
224 .IP
225 .B info diff
226 .PP
227 should give you access to the complete manual.