GNU sdiff — side-by-side merge of file differences
Examples (TL;DR)
-
Compare 2 files:
sdiff path/to/file1 path/to/file2 -
Compare 2 files, ignoring all tabs and whitespace:
sdiff -W path/to/file1 path/to/file2 -
Compare 2 files, ignoring whitespace at the end of lines:
sdiff -Z path/to/file1 path/to/file2 -
Compare 2 files in a case-insensitive manner:
sdiff -i path/to/file1 path/to/file2 -
Compare and then merge, writing the output to a new file:
sdiff -o path/to/merged_file path/to/file1 path/to/file2
Synopsis
sdiff [OPTION]... FILE1 FILE2
Description
Side-by-side merge of differences between FILE1 and FILE2.
Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.
- -o, --output=FILE
operate interactively, sending output to FILE
- -i, --ignore-case
consider upper- and lower-case to be the same
- -E, --ignore-tab-expansion
ignore changes due to tab expansion
- -Z, --ignore-trailing-space
ignore white space at line end
- -b, --ignore-space-change
ignore changes in the amount of white space
- -W, --ignore-all-space
ignore all white space
- -B, --ignore-blank-lines
ignore changes whose lines are all blank
- -I, --ignore-matching-lines=RE
ignore changes all whose lines match RE
- --strip-trailing-cr
strip trailing carriage return on input
- -a, --text
treat all files as text
- -w, --width=NUM
output at most NUM (default 130) print columns
- -l, --left-column
output only the left column of common lines
- -s, --suppress-common-lines
do not output common lines
- -t, --expand-tabs
expand tabs to spaces in output
- --tabsize=NUM
tab stops at every NUM (default 8) print columns
- -d, --minimal
try hard to find a smaller set of changes
- -H, --speed-large-files
assume large files, many scattered small changes
- --diff-program=PROGRAM
use PROGRAM to compare files
- --help
display this help and exit
- -v, --version
output version information and exit
If a FILE is '-', read standard input. Exit status is 0 if inputs are the same, 1 if different, 2 if trouble.
Reporting Bugs
Report bugs to: bug-diffutils@gnu.org
GNU diffutils home page: <https://www.gnu.org/software/diffutils/>
General help using GNU software: <https://www.gnu.org/gethelp/>
Copyright
Copyright © 2018 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
See Also
The full documentation for GNU is maintained as a Texinfo manual. If the info and GNU programs are properly installed at your site, the command
info GNU
should give you access to the complete manual.
Referenced By
cmp(1), diff(1), diff3(1), nvim(1).