diff3

 

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 DIFF3(1)                    GNU Tools                    DIFF3(1)
 
 
 
NAME
        diff3 - find differences between three files
 
SYNOPSIS
        diff3 [options] mine older yours
 
DESCRIPTION
        The   diff3  command  compares  three  files  and  outputs
        descriptions of their differences.
 
        The files to compare are mine, older, and yours.  At  most
        one  of these three file names may be -, which tells diff3
        to read the standard input for that file.
 
    Options
        Below is a summary of all of the options  that  GNU  diff3
        accepts.  Multiple single letter options (unless they take
        an argument) can be combined into a  single  command  line
        argument.
 
        -a     Treat  all  files as text and compare them line-by-
               line, even if they do not appear to be text.
 
        -A     Incorporate all changes from older  to  yours  into
               mine, surrounding all conflicts with bracket lines.
 
        -B     Old behavior of -A.  Shows non-conflicts.
 
        -e     Generate an ed script  that  incorporates  all  the
               changes from older to yours into mine.
 
        -E     Like  -e,  except  bracket  lines  from overlapping
               changes' first and third files.  With -e, an  over­
               lapping change looks like this:
 
               <<<<<<< mine
               lines from mine
               =======
               lines from yours
               >>>>>>> yours
 
        --ed   Generate  an  ed  script  that incorporates all the
               changes from older to yours into mine.
 
        --easy-only
               Like -e,  except  output  only  the  nonoverlapping
               changes.
 
        -i     Generate  w  and  q  commands  at the end of the ed
               script for System  V  compatibility.   This  option
               must  be  combined with one of the -AeExX3 options,
               and may not be combined with -m.
 
        --initial-tab
               Output a tab rather than two spaces before the text
               of a line in normal format.  This causes the align­
               ment of tabs in the line to look normal.
 
        -L label
        --label=label
               Use the label label for the brackets output by  the
               -A, -E and -X options.  This option may be given up
               to three times,  one  for  each  input  file.   The
               default  labels  are  the names of the input files.
               Thus diff3 -L X -L Y -L Z -m A B C acts like  diff3
               -m  A  B  C  , except that the output looks like it
               came from files named X, Y and Z rather  than  from
               files named A, B and C.
 
        -m
        --merge
               Apply  the  edit  script to the first file and send
               the result to standard output.  Unlike  piping  the
               output from diff3 to ed, this works even for binary
               files and incomplete lines.  -A is  assumed  if  no
               edit script option is specified.
 
        --overlap-only
               Like   -e,   except  output  only  the  overlapping
               changes.
 
        --show-all
               Incorporate all  unmerged  changes  from  older  to
               yours   into   mine,  surrounding  all  overlapping
               changes with bracket lines.
 
        --show-overlap
               Like -e,  except  bracket  lines  from  overlapping
               changes' first and third files.
 
        -T     Output a tab rather than two spaces before the text
               of a line in normal format.  This causes the align­
               ment of tabs in the line to look normal.
 
        --text Treat  all  files as text and compare them line-by-
               line, even if they do not appear to be text.
 
        -v
        --version
               Output the version number of diff3.
 
        -x     Like  -e,  except  output  only   the   overlapping
               changes.
 
        -X     Like   -E,   except  output  only  the  overlapping
               changes.  In other words, like -x,  except  bracket
               changes as in -E.
 
        -3     Like  -e,  except  output  only  the nonoverlapping
               changes.
 
SEE ALSO
        cmp(1), comm(1), diff(1), ed(1), patch(1), sdiff(1).
 
 DIAGNOSTICS
        An exit status of 0 means diff3 was  successful,  1  means
        some conflicts were found, and 2 means trouble.
 
 
 
 GNU Tools                   22sep1993                    DIFF3(1)

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