diff3(C)

diff3 -- compare three files

Syntax

diff3 [ -ex3 ] file1 file2 file3

Description

diff3 compares three versions of a file, and publishes disagreeing ranges of text flagged with these codes:

====: all three files differ
====1: file1 is different
====2: file2 is different
====3: file3 is different

The type of change suffered in converting a given range of a given file to some other range is indicated in one of these ways:

f : n1 a: Text is to be appended after line number n1 in file f, where f = 1, 2, or 3.
f : n1 , n2 c: Text is to be changed in the range line n1 to line n2. If n1 = n2, the range may be abbreviated to n1.

The original contents of the range follow immediately after a c indication. When the contents of two files are identical, the contents of the lower-numbered file are suppressed.

Options are:

-e: Write a script for the editor ed(C) on the standard output that will incorporate into file1 all changes between file2 and file3, that is, the changes that normally would be flagged ==== and ====3.
-x: Write an ed script on the standard output to incorporate changes flagged with ====.
-3: Write an ed script on the standard output to incorporate changes flagged with ====3.

Examples

Produce an ed script that will incorporate into file1 all changes between file2 and file3:

diff3 -e file1 file2 file3 > script

Apply the editing script to file1:

(cat script; echo '1,$p') | ed - file1

Perform the above operations as a pipeline:

diff3 -e file1 file2 file3 | ed - file1

Limitations

None of the options work properly for lines consisting of a single period.

The input file size limit is 64KB.

Files