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diff3(1) General Commands Manual diff3(1) NAME diff3 - Compares three files SYNOPSIS diff3 [-e|-x|-E|-X|-3] file1 file2 file3 The diff3 command reads three versions of a file and writes to standard output the ranges of text that differ. OPTIONS 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). Produces an edit script to incorporate only changes flagged ====. These are similar to -e and -x, respectively, but treat overlapping changes (that is, changes that are flagged ==== in the normal listing) differently. The overlapping lines from both files are inserted by the edit script, bracketed by <<<<<< and >>>>>> lines. The -E option is used by RCS merge to ensure that overlapping changes in the merged files are preserved and brought to someone's attention. Produces an edit script to incorporate only changes flagged ====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. file1 differs. file2 differs. 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: Text is to be added after line number number1 in file, where file is 1, 2, or 3. Text in the range line number1 to line number2 is to be changed. If number1 = number2, the range may be abbreviated to num- ber1. The original contents of the range follow immediately after a c indica- tion. When the contents of two files are identical, diff3 does not show the contents of the lower-numbered file, although it shows the lo- cation of the identical lines for each. NOTES Editing scripts produced by the -e option cannot create lines consist- ing only of a single . (dot). EXAMPLES To list the differences among three files, enter: diff3 fruit.a fruit.b fruit.c fruit.a, fruit.b, and fruit.c contain the following data: fruit.a: banana grape kiwi lemon mango orange peach pare fruit.b: apple banana grapefruit kiwi orange peach pear fruit.c: grape grapefruit kiwi lemon mango orange peach pear The output from diff3 shows the differences between these files as fol- lows. (The comments on the right do not appear in the output.) ==== 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 fruit.b apple banana grapefruit 3:1,2c - Lines 1 and 2 of fruit.c grape grapefruit ====2 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 3:4,5c - To make fruit.b look the same, add text after line 4. lemon mango ====1 The first file, fruit.a, is different. 1:8c pare 2:7c - Line 7 of fruit.b and line 8 of fruit.c are the same. 3:8c pear FILES Helper program. SEE ALSO Commands: bdiff(1), cmp(1), comm(1), diff(1), ed(1) diff3(1)