Manpages - diff.1

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 and timestamp (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
–no-dereference: don't follow symbolic links
-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 where lines are all blank
-I, *–ignore-matching-lines*=/RE/: ignore changes where all lines 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
–color[=/WHEN/]: color output; WHEN is 'never', 'always', or 'auto'; plain –color means –color='auto'
*–palette*=/PALETTE/: the colors to use when –color is active; PALETTE is a colon-separated list of terminfo capabilities
–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.

AUTHOR

Written by Paul Eggert, Mike Haertel, David Hayes, Richard Stallman, and Len Tower.

REPORTING BUGS

Report bugs to: [email protected]
GNU diffutils home page: <https://www.gnu.org/software/diffutils/>
General help using GNU software: <https://www.gnu.org/gethelp/>

COPYRIGHT

Copyright © 2023 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.