1MERGE(1) General Commands Manual MERGE(1)
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6 merge - three-way file merge
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9 merge [ options ] file1 file2 file3
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12 merge incorporates all changes that lead from file2 to file3 into
13 file1. The result ordinarily goes into file1. merge is useful for
14 combining separate changes to an original. Suppose file2 is the origi‐
15 nal, and both file1 and file3 are modifications of file2. Then merge
16 combines both changes.
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18 A conflict occurs if both file1 and file3 have changes in a common seg‐
19 ment of lines. If a conflict is found, merge normally outputs a warn‐
20 ing and brackets the conflict with <<<<<<< and >>>>>>> lines. A typi‐
21 cal conflict will look like this:
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23 <<<<<<< file A
24 lines in file A
25 =======
26 lines in file B
27 >>>>>>> file B
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29 If there are conflicts, the user should edit the result and delete one
30 of the alternatives.
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33 -A Output conflicts using the -A style of diff3(1), if supported by
34 diff3. This merges all changes leading from file2 to file3 into
35 file1, and generates the most verbose output.
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37 -E, -e These options specify conflict styles that generate less infor‐
38 mation than -A. See diff3(1) for details. The default is -E.
39 With -e, merge does not warn about conflicts.
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41 -L label
42 This option may be given up to three times, and specifies labels
43 to be used in place of the corresponding file names in conflict
44 reports. That is, merge -L x -L y -L z a b c generates output
45 that looks like it came from files x, y and z instead of from
46 files a, b and c.
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48 -p Send results to standard output instead of overwriting file1.
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50 -q Quiet; do not warn about conflicts.
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52 -V Print RCS's version number.
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55 Exit status is 0 for no conflicts, 1 for some conflicts, 2 for trouble.
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58 Author: Walter F. Tichy.
59 Manual Page Revision: 5.10.0; Release Date: 2021-04-04.
60 Copyright © 2010-2020 Thien-Thi Nguyen.
61 Copyright © 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995 Paul Eggert.
62 Copyright © 1982, 1988, 1989 Walter F. Tichy.
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65 diff3(1), diff(1), rcsmerge(1), co(1).
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67 The full documentation for RCS is maintained as a Texinfo manual. If
68 the info(1) and RCS programs are properly installed at your site, the
69 command
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71 info rcs
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73 should give you access to the complete manual. Additionally, the RCS
74 homepage:
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76 http://www.gnu.org/software/rcs/
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78 has news and links to the latest release, development site, etc.
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81 It normally does not make sense to merge binary files as if they were
82 text, but merge tries to do it anyway.
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86GNU RCS 5.10.0 2021-04-04 MERGE(1)