bdiff.1 (2010 09)

b
bdiff(1) bdiff(1)
NAME
bdiff - diff for large files
SYNOPSIS
bdiff file1 file2 [ n ][
-s]
DESCRIPTION
bdiff compares two files and produces output identical to what would be produced by
diff (see
diff(1)), specifying changes that must be made to make the files identical.
bdiff is designed for han-
dling files that are too large for
diff, but it can be used on files of any length.
bdiff processes files as follows:
• Ignore lines common to the beginning of both files.
• Split the remainder of each file into n-line segments, then execute
diff on corresponding seg-
ments. The default value of n is 3500.
Command-Line Arguments
bdiff recognizes the following command-line arguments:
file1
file2 Names of two files to be compared by
bdiff.Iffile1 or file2 (but not both) is
-, stan-
dard input is used instead.
n If a numeric value is present as the third argument, the files are divided into n-line
segments before processing by
diff. Default value for n is 3500. This option is useful
when 3500-line segments are too large for processing by diff.
-s Silent option suppresses diagnostic printing by bdiff, but does not suppress possible
error messages from diff). If the n and -s arguments are both used, the n argument
must precede the
-s option on the command line or it will not be properly recognized.
EXTERNAL INFLUENCES
Environment Variables
LC_MESSAGES determines the language in which messages are displayed.
If
LC_MESSAGES is not specified in the environment or is set to the empty string, the value of
LANG is
used as a default for each unspecified or empty variable. If
LANG is not specified or is set to the empty
string, a default of "C" (see lang(5)) is used instead of LANG.
If any internationalization variable contains an invalid setting,
bdiff behaves as if all internationaliza-
tion variables are set to "C". See environ (5).
International Code Set Support
Single- and multi-byte character code sets are supported.
DIAGNOSTICS
both files standard input (bd2)
Standard input was specified for both files. Only one file can be specified as standard input.
non-numeric limit (bd4)
A non-numeric value was specified for the n (third) argument.
EXAMPLES
Find differences between two large files:
file1 and file2, and place the result in a new file named
diffs_1.2.
bdiff file1 file2 >diffs_1.2
Do the same, but limit file length to 1400 lines; suppress error messages:
bdiff file1 file2 1400 -s >diffs_1.2
WARNINGS
bdiff produces output identical to output from diff, and makes the necessary line-number corrections
so that the output looks like it was processed by diff. However, depending on where the files are split,
bdiff may or may not find a fully minimized set of file differences.
HP-UX 11i Version 3: September 2010 − 1 − Hewlett-Packard Company 1