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Annotation of cci/usr/src/man/man1/diff.1, revision 1.1

1.1     ! root        1: .TH DIFF 1  "18 January 1983"
        !             2: .UC 4
        !             3: .SH NAME
        !             4: diff \- differential file and directory comparator
        !             5: .SH SYNOPSIS
        !             6: .B diff
        !             7: [
        !             8: .B \-l
        !             9: ] [
        !            10: .B \-r
        !            11: ] [
        !            12: .B \-s
        !            13: ] [
        !            14: \fB\-cefh\fR
        !            15: ] [
        !            16: .B \-b
        !            17: ] dir1 dir2
        !            18: .br
        !            19: .B diff
        !            20: [
        !            21: \fB\-cefh
        !            22: ] [
        !            23: \fB\-b\fR
        !            24: ] file1 file2
        !            25: .br
        !            26: .B diff
        !            27: [
        !            28: .BI \-D string
        !            29: ] [
        !            30: .B \-b
        !            31: ]
        !            32: file1 file2
        !            33: .SH DESCRIPTION
        !            34: If both arguments are directories,
        !            35: .I diff
        !            36: sorts the contents of the directories by name, and then runs the
        !            37: regular file
        !            38: .I diff
        !            39: algorithm (described below)
        !            40: on text files which are different.
        !            41: Binary files which differ,
        !            42: common subdirectories, and files which appear in only one directory
        !            43: are listed.
        !            44: Options when comparing directories are:
        !            45: .TP
        !            46: .B \-l
        !            47: long output format; each text file
        !            48: .I diff
        !            49: is piped through
        !            50: .IR pr (1)
        !            51: to paginate it,
        !            52: other differences are remembered and summarized
        !            53: after all text file differences are reported.
        !            54: .TP
        !            55: .B \-r
        !            56: causes application of
        !            57: .I diff
        !            58: recursively to common subdirectories encountered.
        !            59: .TP
        !            60: .B \-s
        !            61: causes 
        !            62: .I diff
        !            63: to report files which are the same, which are otherwise not mentioned.
        !            64: .TP
        !            65: .B \-Sname
        !            66: starts a directory
        !            67: .I diff
        !            68: in the middle beginning with file
        !            69: .I name.
        !            70: .PP
        !            71: When run on regular files, and when comparing text files which differ
        !            72: during directory comparison,
        !            73: .I diff
        !            74: tells what lines must be changed in the files to bring them into agreement.
        !            75: Except in rare circumstances,
        !            76: .I diff
        !            77: finds a smallest sufficient set of file differences.
        !            78: If neither
        !            79: .I file1
        !            80: nor
        !            81: .I file2
        !            82: is a directory, then either
        !            83: may be given as `\-', in which case the standard input is used.
        !            84: If
        !            85: .I file1
        !            86: is a directory,
        !            87: then a file in that directory whose file-name is the same as the file-name of
        !            88: .I file2
        !            89: is used (and vice versa).
        !            90: .PP
        !            91: There are several options for output format;
        !            92: the default output format contains lines of these forms:
        !            93: .IP "" 5
        !            94: .I n1
        !            95: a
        !            96: .I n3,n4
        !            97: .br
        !            98: .I n1,n2
        !            99: d
        !           100: .I n3
        !           101: .br
        !           102: .I n1,n2
        !           103: c
        !           104: .I n3,n4
        !           105: .PP
        !           106: These lines resemble
        !           107: .I ed
        !           108: commands to convert
        !           109: .I file1
        !           110: into
        !           111: .IR file2 .
        !           112: The numbers after the letters pertain to
        !           113: .IR file2 .
        !           114: In fact, by exchanging `a' for `d' and reading backward
        !           115: one may ascertain equally how to convert 
        !           116: .I file2
        !           117: into
        !           118: .IR file1 .
        !           119: As in 
        !           120: .I ed,
        !           121: identical pairs where
        !           122: .I n1
        !           123: =
        !           124: .I n2
        !           125: or
        !           126: .I n3
        !           127: =
        !           128: .I n4
        !           129: are abbreviated as a single number.
        !           130: .PP
        !           131: Following each of these lines come all the lines that are
        !           132: affected in the first file flagged by `<', 
        !           133: then all the lines that are affected in the second file
        !           134: flagged by `>'.
        !           135: .PP
        !           136: Except for
        !           137: .B \-b,
        !           138: which may be given with any of the others,
        !           139: the following options are mutually exclusive:
        !           140: .TP 9
        !           141: .B \-e
        !           142: producing a script of
        !           143: .I "a, c"
        !           144: and 
        !           145: .I d
        !           146: commands for the editor
        !           147: .I ed,
        !           148: which will recreate
        !           149: .I file2
        !           150: from
        !           151: .IR file1 .
        !           152: In connection with
        !           153: .BR \-e ,
        !           154: the following shell program may help maintain
        !           155: multiple versions of a file.
        !           156: Only an ancestral file ($1) and a chain of 
        !           157: version-to-version
        !           158: .I ed
        !           159: scripts ($2,$3,...) made by
        !           160: .I diff
        !           161: need be on hand.
        !           162: A `latest version' appears on
        !           163: the standard output.
        !           164: .IP
        !           165: \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ (shift; cat $*; echo \'1,$p\') \(bv ed \- $1
        !           166: .IP
        !           167: Extra commands are added to the output when comparing directories with
        !           168: .B \-e,
        !           169: so that the result is a
        !           170: .IR sh (1)
        !           171: script for converting text files which are common to the two directories
        !           172: from their state in
        !           173: .I dir1
        !           174: to their state in
        !           175: .I dir2.
        !           176: .TP 9
        !           177: .B \-f
        !           178: produces a script similar to that of
        !           179: .B \-e,
        !           180: not useful with
        !           181: .I ed,
        !           182: and in the opposite order.
        !           183: .TP 9
        !           184: .B \-c
        !           185: produces a diff with lines of context.
        !           186: The default is to present 3 lines of context and may be changed, e.g to 10, by
        !           187: .BR \-c10 \&.
        !           188: With
        !           189: .B \-c
        !           190: the output format is modified slightly:
        !           191: the output beginning with identification of the files involved and
        !           192: their creation dates and then each change is separated
        !           193: by a line with a dozen *'s.
        !           194: The lines removed from
        !           195: .I file1
        !           196: are marked with `\(mi'; those added to
        !           197: .I file2
        !           198: are marked `+'.  Lines which are changed from one
        !           199: file to the other are marked in both files with `!'.
        !           200: .TP 9
        !           201: .B \-h
        !           202: does a fast, half-hearted job.
        !           203: It works only when changed stretches are short
        !           204: and well separated,
        !           205: but does work on files of unlimited length.
        !           206: .TP
        !           207: .B \-Dstring
        !           208: causes
        !           209: .I diff
        !           210: to create a merged version of
        !           211: .I file1
        !           212: and
        !           213: .I file2
        !           214: on the standard output, with C preprocessor controls included so that
        !           215: a compilation of the result without defining \fIstring\fR is equivalent
        !           216: to compiling
        !           217: .I file1,
        !           218: while defining
        !           219: .I string
        !           220: will yield
        !           221: .I file2.
        !           222: .TP
        !           223: .B \-b
        !           224: causes trailing blanks (spaces and tabs) to be ignored, and other
        !           225: strings of blanks to compare equal.
        !           226: .SH FILES
        !           227: /tmp/d?????
        !           228: .br
        !           229: /usr/lib/diffh for 
        !           230: .B \-h
        !           231: .br
        !           232: /bin/pr
        !           233: .SH "SEE ALSO"
        !           234: cmp(1), cc(1), comm(1), ed(1), diff3(1)
        !           235: .SH DIAGNOSTICS
        !           236: Exit status is 0 for no differences, 1 for some, 2 for trouble.
        !           237: .SH BUGS
        !           238: Editing scripts produced under the
        !           239: .BR \-e " or"
        !           240: .BR \-f " option are naive about"
        !           241: creating lines consisting of a single `\fB.\fR'.
        !           242: .PP
        !           243: When comparing directories with the
        !           244: .B \-b
        !           245: option specified,
        !           246: .I diff
        !           247: first compares the files ala
        !           248: .I cmp,
        !           249: and then decides to run the
        !           250: .I diff
        !           251: algorithm if they are not equal.
        !           252: This may cause a small amount of spurious output if the files
        !           253: then turn out to be identical because the only differences are
        !           254: insignificant blank string differences.

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