bdiff(1)                                                    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 ?????

       REFERENCES
             diff(1)




                           Copyright 1994 Novell, Inc.               Page 1