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sdiff(1)

HP-UX 11i Version 3: February 2007
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NAME

sdiff — side-by-side difference program

SYNOPSIS

sdiff [options ...] file1 file2

DESCRIPTION

sdiff uses the output of diff(1) with the -b option, which ignores trailing blanks (spaces and tabs) and treats other strings of blanks as equal, to produce a side-by-side listing of two files, indicating those lines that are different. Each line of the two files is printed with a blank gutter between them if the lines are identical, a < in the gutter if the line only exists in file1, a > in the gutter if the line only exists in file2, and a | for lines that are different.

For example:

abc|xyz
abc abc
bca< 
cba< 
dcb dcb
 >cde

Options

sdiff recognizes the following options:

-w n

Use the next argument, n, as the width of the output line. The maximum value of n is 2048 (LINE_MAX). The default line length is 130 characters.

-l

Only print on the left side when lines are identical.

-s

Do not print identical lines.

-o output

Use the next argument, output, as the name of a third file that is created as a user-controlled merging of file1 and file2. Identical lines of file1 and file2 are copied to output. Sets of differences, as produced by diff(1), are printed; where a set of differences share a common gutter character. After printing each set of differences, sdiff prompts the user with a % and waits for one of the following user-typed commands:

l

append the left column to the output file

r

append the right column to the output file

s

turn on silent mode; do not print identical lines

v

turn off silent mode

e l

call the editor with the left column

e r

call the editor with the right column

e b

call the editor with the concatenation of left and right

e

call the editor with a zero length file

q

exit from the program

On exit from the editor, the resulting file is concatenated on the end of the output file.

EXAMPLES

Print a side-by-side diff of two versions of a file on a printer capable of printing 132 columns:

sdiff -w132 prog.c.old prog.c | lp -dlineprinter

Retrieve the most recently checked in version of a file from RCS and compare it with the version currently checked out:

co -p prog.c > /tmp/$$; sdiff /tmp/$$ prog.c | more; rm /tmp/$$

SEE ALSO

diff(1), ed(1).

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