Comparing and Merging Files

Comparing and Merging Files

This manual is for GNU Diffutils (version 3.3, 23 March 2013), 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, 2009-2013 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.
• Comparison: What file comparison means.
• Output Formats: Formats for two-way difference reports.
• Incomplete Lines: Lines that lack trailing newlines.
• Comparing Directories: Comparing files and directories.
• Adjusting Output: Making diff output prettier.
• diff Performance: Making diff smarter or faster.
• Comparing Three Files: Formats for three-way difference reports.
• diff3 Merging: Merging from a common ancestor.
• Interactive Merging: Interactive merging with sdiff.
• Merging with patch: Using patch to change old files into new ones.
• Making Patches: Tips for making and using patch distributions.
• Invoking cmp: Compare two files byte by byte.
• Invoking diff: Compare two files line by line.
• Invoking diff3: Compare three files line by line.
• Invoking patch: Apply a diff file to an original.
• Invoking sdiff: Side-by-side merge of file differences.
• Standards conformance: Conformance to the POSIX standard.
• Projects: If you've found a bug or other shortcoming.
• Copying This Manual: How to make copies of this manual.
• Translations: Available translations of this manual.
• Index: Index.