[Top] [Contents] [Index] [ ? ]

Comparing and Merging Files

This manual is for GNU Diffutils (version 3.2, 15 August 2011), and documents the GNU diff, diff3, sdiff, and cmp commands for showing the differences between files and the GNU patch command for using their output to update files.

Copyright © 1992-1994, 1998, 2001-2002, 2004, 2006, 2009-2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled “GNU Free Documentation License.”

Overview   Preliminary information.
1. What Comparison Means   What file comparison means.
2. diff Output Formats   Formats for two-way difference reports.
3. Incomplete Lines   Lines that lack trailing newlines.
4. Comparing Directories   Comparing files and directories.
5. Making diff Output Prettier   Making diff output prettier.
6. diff Performance Tradeoffs   Making diff smarter or faster.
7. Comparing Three Files   Formats for three-way difference reports.
8. Merging From a Common Ancestor   Merging from a common ancestor.
9. Interactive Merging with sdiff   Interactive merging with sdiff.
10. Merging with patch   Using patch to change old files into new ones.
11. Tips for Making and Using Patches   Tips for making and using patch distributions.
12. Invoking cmp   Compare two files byte by byte.
13. Invoking diff   Compare two files line by line.
14. Invoking diff3   Compare three files line by line.
15. Invoking patch   Apply a diff file to an original.
16. Invoking sdiff   Side-by-side merge of file differences.
17. Standards conformance   Conformance to the POSIX standard.
18. Future Projects   If you’ve found a bug or other shortcoming.
A. Copying This Manual   How to make copies of this manual.
B. Translations of This Manual   Available translations of this manual.
C. Index  
[Top] [Contents] [Index] [ ? ]

This document was generated by root on April 29, 2012 using texi2html 1.82.