bdiff

PURPOSE

     Uses diff to find differences in very large files.

SYNOPSIS
     bdiff file1 file2 [ n ] [ -s ]


DESCRIPTION

     The  bdiff command  compares file1  and file2  and writes
     information  about  their  differing  lines  to  standard
     output.  If  either file name  is - (minus),  bdiff reads
     standard input.  The  bdiff command is used  like diff to
     find lines that must be changed in two files to make them
     identical (see "diff").  Its primary purpose is to permit
     processing of files that are too large for diff.

     The bdiff  command ignores lines common  to the beginning
     of both  files, splits  the remainder  of each  file into
     num-line segments,  and calls diff to  compare the corre-
     sponding segments.  In some  cases, the 3500 line default
     for num is too large for  diff.  If diff fails, specify a
     smaller value for num and try again.

     The output of bdiff has the  same format as that of diff.
     bdiff adjusts line numbers  to account for the segmenting
     of the files.  Note that  because of the file segmenting,
     bdiff does not necessarily find the smallest possible set
     of file differences.

FLAG

     -s    Suppresses error  messages from bdiff.   (Note that
           the -s  flag does not suppress  error messages from
           diff).

EXAMPLE

     To   display   the   differences  between   "chap1"   and
     "chap1.bak":

       bdiff  chap1  chap1.bak

FILES

     /tmp/bd*    Temporary files.

RELATED INFORMATION

     The following command:  "diff."