DIFF3(1,C) AIX Commands Reference DIFF3(1,C) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- diff3 PURPOSE Compares three files. SYNTAX +--------+ diff3 ---| one of |-- file1 -- file2 -- file3 --| | +----+ | +-| -e |-+ | -x | | -3 | +----+ DESCRIPTION The diff3 command reads three versions of a file and writes to standard output the ranges of text that differ, flagged with the following codes: ==== All three files differ. ====1 file1 differs. ====2 file2 differs. ====3 file3 differs. The type of change needed to convert a given range of a given file to match another file is indicated in one of these two ways in the output: file : n1 a Where file is 1, 2, or 3, text is to be added after line n1. file : n1[,n2] c Where file is file 1, 2, or 3, text between line n1 and line n2 is to be changed. If n1 = n2, the range may be abbreviated to n1. The original contents of the range follows immediately after a c indication. When the contents of two files are identical, the diff3 command does not show the contents of the lower-numbered file, although it shows the location of the identical lines for each. Processed November 8, 1990 DIFF3(1,C) 1 DIFF3(1,C) AIX Commands Reference DIFF3(1,C) Notes: 1. Editing scripts produced by the -e flag cannot create lines consisting only of a single period ("."). 2. The diff3 command does not work on files longer than 64K bytes. FLAGS -e Creates an edit script for use with the ed command to incorporate into file1 all changes between file2 and file3 (that is, the changes that normally would be flagged ==== and ====3). -x Produces an edit script to incorporate only changes flagged ====. -3 Produces an edit script to incorporate only changes flagged ====3. EXAMPLE The following table illustrates the contents of three files fruit.a, fruit.b, and fruit.c: +------------+-------------+------------+ |fruit.a | fruit.b | fruit.c | +------------+-------------+------------+ | | | | | banana | apple | grape | | grape | banana | grapefrui| | kiwi | grapefruit| kiwi | | lemon | kiwi | lemon | | mango | orange | mango | | orange | peach | orange | | peach | pear | peach | | pare | | pear | | | | | +------------+-------------+------------+ To list the differences among the three files: diff3 fruit.a fruit.b fruit.c The output from the diff3 command shows the differences as follows. (Comments to the right do not appear in the output.) " ==== "o All three files are different." 1:1,2c " - Lines 1 and 2 of the first file, "fruit.a banana grape 2:1,3c " - Lines 1 through 3 of the second file, "fruit.b apple banana Processed November 8, 1990 DIFF3(1,C) 2 DIFF3(1,C) AIX Commands Reference DIFF3(1,C) grapefruit 3:1,2c " - Lines 1 and 2 of the third file, "fruit.c grape grapefruit ====2 "o The second file, "fruit.b", is different." 1:4,5c " - Lines 4 and 5 are the same in "fruit.a" and "fruit.c"." 2:4a " - To make "fruit.b" the same as "fruit.a " and "fruit.c"," 3:4,5c " add text after line 4." lemon mango ====1 o The first file, "fruit.a", is different from files "fruit.b" and 1:8c "file.c" pare 2:7c - Line 7 of "fruit.b" and line 8 of "fruit.c" are the same 3:8c pear FILES /tmp/d3* Temporary files for diff3. /usr/lib/diff3prog diff3 executable program. RELATED INFORMATION See the following command: "diff." Processed November 8, 1990 DIFF3(1,C) 3