Home • Explore • Blog • CI
☰



man-pages
1st chunk of `diff3.man`
2f3ec89117bf8ae978ced5d7b7d4a1fa2ec91c2bfe1e4d150000000100000bc2
DIFF3(1)                         User Commands                         DIFF3(1)

NAME
       diff3 - compare three files line by line

SYNOPSIS
       diff3 [OPTION]... MYFILE OLDFILE YOURFILE

DESCRIPTION
       Compare three files line by line.

       Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.

       -A, --show-all
              output all changes, bracketing conflicts

       -e, --ed
              output  ed  script incorporating changes from OLDFILE to YOURFILE
              into MYFILE

       -E, --show-overlap
              like -e, but bracket conflicts

       -3, --easy-only
              like -e, but incorporate only nonoverlapping changes

       -x, --overlap-only
              like -e, but incorporate only overlapping changes

       -X     like -x, but bracket conflicts

       -i     append ’w’ and ’q’ commands to ed scripts

       -m, --merge
              output actual merged file, according to -A if  no  other  options
              are given

       -a, --text
              treat all files as text

       --strip-trailing-cr
              strip trailing carriage return on input

       -T, --initial-tab
              make tabs line up by prepending a tab

       --diff-program=PROGRAM
              use PROGRAM to compare files

       -L, --label=LABEL
              use  LABEL  instead  of  file  name  (can be repeated up to three
              times)

       --help display this help and exit

       -v, --version
              output version information and exit

       The default output format is a somewhat human-readable representation of
       the changes.

       The -e, -E, -x, -X (and corresponding long) options cause an  ed  script
       to be output instead of the default.

       Finally, the -m (--merge) option causes diff3 to do the merge internally
       and  output the actual merged file.  For unusual input, this is more ro‐
       bust than using ed.

       If a FILE is ’-’, read standard input.  Exit status is 0 if  successful,
       1 if conflicts, 2 if trouble.

AUTHOR
       Written by Randy Smith.

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 © 2021 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
       cmp(1), diff(1), sdiff(1)

       The full documentation for diff3 is maintained as a Texinfo manual.   If
       the  info  and  diff3  programs are properly installed at your site, the
       command

              info diff3

       should give you access to the complete manual.

diffutils 3.8                     August 2021                          DIFF3(1)
Title: diff3 - Compare Three Files Line by Line
Summary
The `diff3` command compares three files line by line and outputs the differences. It offers various options to control the output format, including human-readable representations, ed scripts, and merged files. It supports options for showing all changes, overlapping changes, and non-overlapping changes, as well as options for handling text files and carriage returns. The exit status indicates success, conflicts, or errors.