BDIFF(1,C)                  AIX Commands Reference                   BDIFF(1,C)



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bdiff



PURPOSE

Uses the diff command to find differences between very large files.

SYNTAX


                          +- 3500 -+   +------+
bdiff -- file1 -- file2 --|        |---|      |---|
                          +- num --+   +- -s -+


Note:  This command does not have MBCS support.

DESCRIPTION

The bdiff command compares file1 and file2 and writes information about lines
that differ to standard output.  If either file name is a - (minus), the bdiff
command reads standard input.  The bdiff command is used to find lines that
must be changed in two files to make them identical.  Its primary purpose is to
process files that are too large for the diff command to process.

The bdiff command ignores lines common to the beginning of both files, splits
the remainder of each file into num-line segments, and calls the diff command
to compare the corresponding segments.  In some cases, the 3500-line default
for num is too large for the diff command.  If this command fails, specify a
smaller value for num and try again.

The output of the bdiff command has the same format as the diff command.  The
bdiff command adjusts line numbers to account for the segmenting of the files.
Because of the file segmenting, the bdiff command does not necessarily find the
smallest possible set of file differences.

FLAG

-s     Suppresses error messages from the bdiff command (The -s flag does not
       suppress error messages from the diff command).

EXAMPLE

To display the differences between "chap1" and "chap1.bak":

  bdiff  chap1  chap1.bak

FILES

/tmp/bd*     Temporary files.



Processed November 8, 1990        BDIFF(1,C)                                  1

BDIFF(1,C)                  AIX Commands Reference                   BDIFF(1,C)




RELATED INFORMATION

See the following command:  "diff."



















































Processed November 8, 1990        BDIFF(1,C)                                  2