3 diff \- differential file comparator
11 tells what lines must be changed in two files to bring them
15 then a file in that directory with basename the same as that of
16 the other file is used.
17 If both files are directories, similarly named files in the
18 two directories are compared by the method of
24 If more than two file names are given, then each argument is compared
25 to the last argument as above.
30 to process similarly named subdirectories recursively.
31 When processing more than one file,
33 prefixes file differences with a single line
34 listing the two differing files, in the form of
40 flag causes this behavior even when processing single files.
42 The normal output contains lines of these forms:
62 The numbers after the letters pertain to
64 In fact, by exchanging `a' for `d' and reading backward
65 one may ascertain equally how to convert
79 are abbreviated as a single number.
81 Following each of these lines come all the lines that are
82 affected in the first file flagged by `<',
83 then all the lines that are affected in the second file
89 trailing blanks (spaces and tabs) to be ignored
90 and other strings of blanks to compare equal.
93 option causes all white-space to be removed from input lines
94 before applying the difference algorithm.
98 option prefixes each range with
100 and inserts a space around the
108 option produces a script of
112 commands for the editor
120 option produces a similar script,
123 in the opposite order. It may, however, be
124 useful as input to a stream-oriented post-processor.
126 Except in rare circumstances,
128 finds a smallest sufficient set of file
139 Exit status is the empty string
147 Editing scripts produced under the
149 .BR -f " option are naive about"
150 creating lines consisting of a single `\fB.\fR'.
154 on directories, the notion of what is a text
155 file is open to debate.
