sdiff.1 (2010 09)

s
sdiff(1) sdiff(1)
NAME
sdiff - side-by-side difference program
SYNOPSIS
sdiff [ options ... ] file1 file2
DESCRIPTION
sdiff uses the output of diff(1) with the
-b option, which ignores trailing blanks (spaces and tabs) and
treats other strings of blanks as equal, to produce a side-by-side listing of two files, indicating those lines
that are different. Each line of the two files is printed with a blank gutter between them if the lines are
identical, a
< in the gutter if the line only exists in file1,a
> in the gutter if the line only exists in file2 ,
and a
| for lines that are different.
For example:
abc | xyz
abc abc
bca <
cba <
dcb dcb
> cde
Options
sdiff recognizes the following options:
-w n Use the next argument, n, as the width of the output line. The maximum value of n is
2048 (LINE_MAX). The default line length is 130 characters.
-l Only print on the left side when lines are identical.
-s Do not print identical lines.
-o output Use the next argument, output , as the name of a third file that is created as a user-
controlled merging of file1 and file2. Identical lines of file1 and file2 are copied to out-
put. Sets of differences, as produced by diff(1), are printed; where a set of differences
share a common gutter character. After printing each set of differences,
sdiff
prompts the user with a % and waits for one of the following user-typed commands:
l append the left column to the output file
r append the right column to the output file
s turn on silent mode; do not print identical lines
v turn off silent mode
elcall the editor with the left column
ercall the editor with the right column
ebcall the editor with the concatenation of left and right
e call the editor with a zero length file
q exit from the program
On exit from the editor, the resulting file is concatenated on the end of the output file.
EXAMPLES
Print a side-by-side diff of two versions of a file on a printer capable of printing 132 columns:
sdiff -w132 prog.c.old prog.c | lp -dlineprinter
Retrieve the most recently checked in version of a file from RCS and compare it with the version currently
checked out:
co -p prog.c > /tmp/$$; sdiff /tmp/$$ prog.c | more; rm /tmp/$$
SEE ALSO
diff(1), ed(1).
HP-UX 11i Version 3: September 2010 − 1 − Hewlett-Packard Company 1