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diff3(1)
NAME
  diff3 - Compares three files

SYNOPSIS
  diff3 [-e  | -x  | -E	 | -X  | -3] file1 file2 file3

  The diff3 command reads three versions of a file and writes to standard
  output the ranges of text that differ.

OPTIONS
  -e  Creates an edit script for use with the ed command to incorporate into
      file1 all changes between file2 and file3 (that is, the changes that
      normally would be flagged ==== and ====3).

  -x  Produces an edit script to incorporate only changes flagged ====.

  -E, -X
      These are similar to -e and -x, respectively, but treat overlapping
      changes (that is, changes that are flagged ==== in the normal listing)
      differently.  The overlapping lines from both files are inserted by the
      edit script, bracketed by <<<<<< and >>>>>> lines. The -E option is
      used by RCS merge to ensure that overlapping changes in the merged
      files are preserved and brought to someone's attention.

  -3  Produces an edit script to incorporate only changes flagged ====3.

DESCRIPTION
  The diff3 command reads three versions of a file and writes to standard
  output the ranges of text that differ, flagged with the following codes:

  ====
      All three files differ.

  ====1
      file1 differs.

  ====2
      file2 differs.

  ====3
      file3 differs.

  The type of change needed to convert a given range of a given file to match
  another file is indicated in one of these two ways in the output:

  file : number1 a
      Text is to be added after line number number1 in file, where file is 1,
      2, or 3.

  file : number1[,number2] c
      Text in the range line number1 to line number2 is to be changed.	If
      number1 = number2, the range may be abbreviated to number1.

  The original contents of the range follow immediately after a c indication.
  When the contents of two files are identical, diff3 does not show the
  contents of the lower-numbered file, although it shows the location of the
  identical lines for each.

NOTES
  Editing scripts produced by the -e option cannot create lines consisting
  only of a single . (dot).

EXAMPLES
  To list the differences among three files, enter:

       diff3  fruit.a  fruit.b	fruit.c

  fruit.a, fruit.b, and fruit.c contain the following data:

  fruit.a:

       banana
       grape
       kiwi
       lemon
       mango
       orange
       peach
       pare

  fruit.b:

       apple
       banana
       grapefruit
       kiwi
       orange
       peach
       pear

  fruit.c:

       grape
       grapefruit
       kiwi
       lemon
       mango
       orange
       peach
       pear

  The output from diff3 shows the differences between these files as follows.
  (The comments on the right do not appear in the output.)

       ====	All three files are different.
       1:1,2c	     - Lines 1 and 2 of the first file, fruit.a
	 banana
	 grape
       2:1,3c	     - Lines 1 through 3 of fruit.b
	 apple
	 banana
	 grapefruit
       3:1,2c	     - Lines 1 and 2 of fruit.c
	 grape
	 grapefruit
       ====2	The second file, fruit.b, is different.
       1:4,5c	     - Lines 4 and 5 are the same in fruit.a and fruit.c.
       2:4a
       3:4,5c	     - To make fruit.b look the same, add text after line 4.
	 lemon
	 mango
       ====1	The first file, fruit.a, is different.
       1:8c
	 pare
       2:7c	     - Line 7 of fruit.b and line 8 of fruit.c are the same.
       3:8c
	 pear

FILES
  /usr/lbin/diff3prog
      Helper program.

SEE ALSO
  Commands:  bdiff(1), cmp(1), comm(1), diff(1), ed(1)

Index for Section 1

Alphabetical listing for D

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