BDIFF(1)             INTERACTIVE UNIX System             BDIFF(1)



          NAME
               bdiff - big diff

          SYNOPSIS
               bdiff file1 file2 [n] [-s]

          DESCRIPTION
               The bdiff command is used in a manner analogous to diff(1)
               to find which lines in two files must be changed to bring
               the files into agreement.  Its purpose is to allow process-
               ing of files which are too large for diff.

               The parameters to bdiff are:

               file1 (file2)
                    The name of a file to be used.  If file1 (file2) is -,
                    the standard input is read.

               n    The number of line segments.  The value of n is 3500 by
                    default.  If the optional third argument is given and
                    it is numeric, it is used as the value for n.  This is
                    useful in those cases in which 3500-line segments are
                    too large for diff, causing it to fail.

               -s   Specifies that no diagnostics are to be printed by
                    bdiff (silent option).  Note, however, that this does
                    not suppress possible diagnostic messages from diff(1),
                    which bdiff calls.

               The bdiff command ignores lines common to the beginning of
               both files, splits the remainder of each file into n-line
               segments, and invokes diff upon corresponding segments.  If
               both optional arguments are specified, they must appear in
               the order indicated above.

               The output of bdiff is exactly that of diff, with line
               numbers adjusted to account for the segmenting of the files
               (that is, to make it look as if the files had been processed
               whole).  Note that because of the segmenting of the files,
               bdiff does not necessarily find a smallest sufficient set of
               file differences.

          FILES
               /tmp/bd?????

          SEE ALSO
               diff(1).








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