bdiff(1)         (Directory and File Management Utilities)         bdiff(1)


   NAME
         bdiff - big diff

   SYNOPSIS
         bdiff file1 file2 [ n ] [-s]

   DESCRIPTION
         bdiff is used in a manner analogous to diff to find which lines in
         file1 and file2 must be changed to bring the files into agreement.
         Its purpose is to allow processing of files too large for diff.  If
         file1 (file2) is -, the standard input is read.

         Valid options to bdiff are:

         n     The number of line segments.  The value of n is 3500 by
               default.  If the optional third argument is given and it is
               numeric, it is used as the value for n.  This is useful in
               those cases in which 3500-line segments are too large for diff,
               causing it to fail.

         -s    Specifies that no diagnostics are to be printed by bdiff
               (silent option).  Note, however, that this does not suppress
               possible diagnostic messages from diff, which bdiff calls.

         bdiff ignores lines common to the beginning of both files, splits the
         remainder of each file into n-line segments, and invokes diff on
         corresponding segments.  If both optional arguments are specified,
         they must appear in the order indicated above.

         The output of bdiff is exactly that of diff, with line numbers
         adjusted to account for the segmenting of the files (that is, to make
         it look as if the files had been processed whole).  Note that because
         of the segmenting of the files, bdiff does not necessarily find a
         smallest sufficient set of file differences.

   FILES
         /tmp/bd?????

   SEE ALSO
         diff(1), help(1)

   DIAGNOSTICS
         Use help for explanations.










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