NAME

diff3 − 3-way differential file comparison

SYNOPSIS

diff3 [-ex3] file1 file2 file3

DESCRIPTION

diff3 compares three versions of a file, and prints disagreeing ranges of text flagged with these codes:

==== all three files differ

====1 file1 is different

====2 file2 is different

====3 file3 is different

The type of change required to convert a given range of a given file to some other is indicated in one of these ways:

f:n1a Text is to be appended after line number n1 in file f, where f = 1, 2, or 3. 

f:n1,n2c Text is to be changed in the range line n1 through line n2. If n1 = n2, the range can be abbreviated to n1.

The original contents of the range follows immediately after a c indication.  When the contents of two files are identical, the contents of the lower-numbered file is suppressed. 

Under the -e option, diff3 produces a script for the ed editor that can be used to incorporate into file1 all changes between file2 and file3 (see ed(1)); i.e., the changes that normally would be flagged ==== and ====3.  Option -x (-3) produces a script to incorporate only changes flagged ==== (====3).  The following command applies the resulting script to file1.

(cat script; echo ’1,$p’) | ed - file1

EXTERNAL INFLUENCES

International Code Set Support

Single- and multi-byte character code sets are supported. 

FILES

/var/tmp/d3*
/usr/lbin/diff3prog

SEE ALSO

diff(1). 

WARNINGS

Text lines that consist of a single .  defeat -e. 
Files longer than 64K bytes do not work.

Hewlett-Packard Company  —  HP-UX Release 10.20:  July 1996