NAME

diff3 − 3-way differential file comparison

SYNOPSIS

diff3 [ −exEX3 ] file1 file2 file3

DESCRIPTION

diff3 compares three versions of a file, and publishes 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 suffered in converting a given range of a given file to some other is indicated in one of these ways:

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

f : n1 , n2 c Text is to be changed in the range line n1 to line n2. If n1 = n2, the range may 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. 

−e Produce a script for the editor ed(1) that will incorporate into file1 all changes between file2 and file3, that is, the changes that normally would be flagged ==== and ====3. 

−x Produce a script to incorporate only changes flagged ====. 

−3 Produce a script to incorporate only changes flagged ====3. 

−E Produce a script that will incorporate all changes between file2 and file3, but treat overlapping changes (that is, changes that would be flagged with ==== in the normal listing) differently.  The overlapping lines from both files will be inserted by the edit script, bracketed by <<<<<< and >>>>>> lines. 

−X Produce a script that will incorporate only changes flagged ====, but treat these changes in the manner of the −E option. 

The following command will apply the resulting script to file1.

(cat script; echo ′1,$p′) │ ed − file1

FILES

/tmp/d3∗
/usr/lib/diff3prog

SEE ALSO

diff(1)

NOTES

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

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