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merge(1) merge(1) NAME merge - three-way file merge SYNOPSIS merge [-Llabel1 [-Llabel3]] [-p] [-q] file1 file2 file3 DESCRIPTION merge incorporates all changes that lead from file2 to file3 into file1. The result goes to standard output if -p is present, into file1 otherwise. merge is useful for combining separate changes to an origi- nal. Suppose file2 is the original, and both file1 and file3 are modi- fications of file2. Then merge combines both changes. An overlap occurs if both file1 and file3 have changes in a common seg- ment of lines. On a few older hosts where diff3 does not support the -E option, merge does not detect overlaps, and merely supplies the changed lines from file3. On most hosts, if overlaps occur, merge outputs a message (unless the -q option is given), and includes both alternatives in the result. The alternatives are delimited as follows: <<<<<<< file1 lines in file1 ======= lines in file3 >>>>>>> file3 If there are overlaps, the user should edit the result and delete one of the alternatives. If the -L label1 and -L label3 options are given, the labels are output in place of the names file1 and file3 in overlap reports. DIAGNOSTICS Exit status is 0 for no overlaps, 1 for some overlaps, 2 for trouble. IDENTIFICATION Author: Walter F. Tichy. Revision Number: 1.1.6.2; Release Date: 1993/10/07. Copyright 1982, 1988, 1989 by Walter F. Tichy. Copyright 1990, 1991 by Paul Eggert. SEE ALSO diff3(1), diff(1), rcsmerge(1), co(1) merge(1)