NAME

sdiff − print file differences side-by-side

SYNOPSIS

sdiff [ options ] file1 file2

DESCRIPTION

sdiff uses the output of the diff command to produce a side-by-side listing of two files indicating lines that are different.  Lines of the two files are printed with a blank gutter between them if the lines are identical, a < in the gutter if the line appears only in file1, a > in the gutter if the line appears only in file2, and a | for lines that are different.  For example:

x|y
aa
b<
c<
dd
>c

Valid options are:

−w  n Use the argument n as the width of the output line.  The default line length is 130 columns.  Multicolumn characters that cross the right margin of a file are displayed as ASCII spaces. 

−l Print only the left side of any lines that are identical. 

−s Do not print identical lines. 

−o  output Use the argument output as the name of a third file that is created as a user-controlled merge of file1 and file2. Identical lines of file1 and file2 are copied to output. Sets of differences, as produced by diff, are printed; where a set of differences share a common gutter character.  After printing each set of differences, sdiff prompts the user with a % and waits for one of the following user-typed commands:

l Append the left column to the output file. 

r Append the right column to the output file. 

s Turn on silent mode; do not print identical lines. 

v Turn off silent mode. 

e l Call the editor with the left column. 

e r Call the editor with the right column. 

e b Call the editor with the concatenation of left and right. 

e Call the editor with a zero length file. 

q Exit from the program. 

On exit from the editor, the resulting file is concatenated to the end of the output file. 

INTERNATIONAL FUNCTIONS

sdiff can process files containing characters from supplementary code sets. 

SEE ALSO

diff(1), ed(1)

  —  Directory and File Management Utilities