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sdiff ? find differences between two files and merge interactively |
sdiff -o outfile [options] from-file to-file |
The sdiff command merges two files and interactively outputs the results to outfile. If from-file is a directory and to-file is not, sdiff compares the file in from-file whose file name is that of to-file, and vice versa. from-file and to-file may not both be directories. sdiff options begin with ?, so normally from-file and to-file may not begin with ?. However, ?? as an argument by itself treats the remaining arguments as file names even if they begin with ?. You may not use ? as an input file. sdiff without ?o (or ??output) produces a side-by-side difference. This usage is obsolete; use diff ??side?by?side instead. |
Options |
Below is a summary of all of the options that GNU sdiff accepts. Each option has two equivalent names, one of which is a single letter preceded by ?, and the other of which is a long name preceded by ??. Multiple single letter options (unless they take an argument) can be combined into a single command line argument. Long named options can be abbreviated to any unique prefix of their name. |
?a |
Treat all files as text and compare them line-by-line, even if they do not appear to be text. |
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?b |
Ignore changes in amount of white space. |
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?B |
Ignore changes that just insert or delete blank lines. |
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?d |
Change the algorithm to perhaps find a smaller set of changes. This makes sdiff slower (sometimes much slower). |
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?H |
Use heuristics to speed handling of large files that have numerous scattered small changes. |
??expand?tabs |
Expand tabs to spaces in the output, to preserve the alignment of tabs in the input files. |
?i |
Ignore changes in case; consider upper- and lower-case to be the same. |
?I regexp |
Ignore changes that just insert or delete lines that match regexp. |
??ignore?all?space |
Ignore white space when comparing lines. |
??ignore?blank?lines |
Ignore changes that just insert or delete blank lines. |
??ignore?case |
Ignore changes in case; consider upper- and lower-case to be the same. |
??ignore?matching?lines=regexp |
Ignore changes that just insert or delete lines that match regexp. |
??ignore?space?change |
Ignore changes in amount of white space. |
?l |
??left?column |
Print only the left column of two common lines. |
??minimal |
Change the algorithm to perhaps find a smaller set of changes. This makes sdiff slower (sometimes much slower). |
?o file |
??output=file |
Put merged output into file. This option is required for merging. |
?s |
??suppress?common?lines |
Do not print common lines. |
??speed?large?files |
Use heuristics to speed handling of large files that have numerous scattered small changes. |
?t |
Expand tabs to spaces in the output, to preserve the alignment of tabs in the input files. |
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??text |
Treat all files as text and compare them line-by-line, even if they do not appear to be text. |
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?v |
??version |
Output the version number of sdiff. |
?w columns |
??width=columns |
Use an output width of columns. Note that for historical reasons, this option is ?W in diff, ?w in sdiff. |
?W |
Ignore horizontal white space when comparing lines. Note that for historical reasons, this option is ?w in diff, ?W in sdiff. |
cmp(1), comm(1), diff(1), diff3(1). |
An exit status of 0 means no differences were found, 1 means some differences were found, and 2 means trouble. |