diff3(1)                                                 diff3(1)



     NAME
          diff3 - 3-way differential file comparison

     SYNOPSIS
          diff3 [-3] [-e] [-x] file1 file2 file3

     DESCRIPTION
          diff3 compares three versions of a file, and publishes
          disagreeing ranges of text flagged with these codes:

             ====           all three files differ

             ====1          file1 is different

             ====2          file2 is different

             ====3          file3 is different

          The type of change suffered in converting a given range of a
          given file to some other is indicated in one of these ways:

             f : n1 a       Text is to be appended after line number
                            n1 in file f, where f = 1, 2, or 3.

             f : n1 , n2 c  Text is to be changed in the range line n1
                            to line n2.  If n1 = n2, the range may be
                            abbreviated to n1.

          The original contents of the range follows immediately after
          a c indication.  When the contents of two files are
          identical, the contents of the lower-numbered file is
          suppressed.

          Under the -e flag option, diff3 publishes a script for the
          editor ed that will incorporate into file1 all changes
          between file2 and file3, i.e., the changes that normally
          would be flagged ==== and ====3.  Flag option -x (-3)
          produces a script to incorporate only changes flagged ====
          (====3).  The following command will apply the resulting
          script to file1.

               (cat script; echo '1,$p') | ed - file1

     EXAMPLE
          If file f1 contains the following text:

               This is a file.
               This is the first of three files.
               This is not the last file.

          and file f2 contains:




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     diff3(1)                                                 diff3(1)



               This is a file.
               This is the second of three files.
               This is not the last file.

          and file f3 contains:

               This is a file.
               This is the third of three files.
               This is the last file.

          then

               diff3 f1 f2 f3

          will return
               ====
               1:2,3c

                  This is the first of three files.
                  This is not the last file.
               2:2,3c
                  This is the second of three files.
                  This is not the last file.
               3:2,3c
                  This is the third of three files.
                  This is the last file

     FILES
          /usr/bin/diff3/
          /tmp/d3*
          /usr/lib/diff3prog

     SEE ALSO
          diff(1).

     BUGS
          Text lines that consist of a single . will defeat -e.
          diff3 won't work on files longer than 64K bytes .

















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