1DIFF3(1)                    General Commands Manual                   DIFF3(1)
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NAME

6       diff3 - 3-way differential file comparison
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SYNOPSIS

9       diff3 [ -exEX3 ] file1 file2 file3
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DESCRIPTION

12       Diff3  compares  three  versions  of  a file, and publishes disagreeing
13       ranges of text flagged with these codes:
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15       ====            all three files differ
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17       ====1           file1 is different
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19       ====2           file2 is different
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21       ====3           file3 is different
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23       The type of change suffered in converting a given range of a given file
24       to some other is indicated in one of these ways:
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26       f : n1 a        Text  is to be appended after line number n1 in file f,
27                       where f = 1, 2, or 3.
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29       f : n1 , n2 c   Text is to be changed in the range line n1 to line  n2.
30                       If n1 = n2, the range may be abbreviated to n1.
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32       The  original contents of the range follows immediately after a c indi‐
33       cation.  When the contents of two files are identical, the contents  of
34       the lower-numbered file is suppressed.
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36       Under  the  -e  option, diff3 publishes a script for the editor ed that
37       will incorporate into file1 all changes between file2 and  file3,  i.e.
38       the  changes  that normally would be flagged ==== and ====3.  Option -x
39       (-3) produces  a  script  to  incorporate  only  changes  flagged  ====
40       (====3).   The  following  command  will  apply the resulting script to
41       `file1'.
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43                (cat script; echo ´1,$p´) ⎪ ed - file1
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45       The -E and -X are similar to -e and -x, respectively, but  treat  over‐
46       lapping  changes  (i.e., changes that would be flagged with ==== in the
47       normal listing) differently.  The overlapping  lines  from  both  files
48       will be inserted by the edit script, bracketed by "<<<<<<" and ">>>>>>"
49       lines.
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51       For example, suppose lines 7-8 are changed in  both  file1  and  file2.
52       Applying the edit script generated by the command
53                            "diff3 -E file1 file2 file3"
54       to file1 results in the file:
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56              lines 1-6
57              of file1
58              <<<<<<< file1
59              lines 7-8
60              of file1
61              =======
62              lines 7-8
63              of file3
64              >>>>>>> file3
65              rest of file1
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67       The  -E  option  is  used  by  RCS  merge(1) to insure that overlapping
68       changes in the merged files are  preserved  and  brought  to  someone's
69       attention.
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FILES

72       /tmp/d3?????
73       /usr/libexec/diff3
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SEE ALSO

76       diff(1)
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BUGS

79       Text lines that consist of a single `.' will defeat -e.
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837th Edition                    October 21, 1996                       DIFF3(1)