BDIFF(1)                             SysV                             BDIFF(1)



NAME
     bdiff - big diff

SYNOPSIS
     bdiff file1 file2 [n] [ -s ]

DESCRIPTION
     bdiff 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 processing of files which are too large for diff.

OPTIONS
     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.

     bdiff 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?????

DIAGNOSTICS
     Use help(1) for explanations.

SEE ALSO
     diff(1), help(1).