sdif - sdiff clone

SYNOPSIS

       sdif [-n]  [-l]  [-s]  [-[fF]]  [-b]  [-i] [-w] [-w width]
            [-c[line]] [-diff=command] [file1 [file2]]
       sdif [-rcs] [-q] [-rrev1 [-rrev2]] [sdif options] file

DESCRIPTION

       Sdif is a clone of System V sdiff(1) command.   The  basic
       feature of sdif and sdiff is making a side-by-side listing
       of two different files.  It makes much easier  to  compare
       two  files  than  looking  at the normal diff output.  All
       contents of two files a listed on left  and  right  sides.
       Center  column is used to indicate how different the line.
       No mark means there  is  no  difference.   The  line  only
       included in left file is indicated by `<' mark, and `>' is
       used to lines only in right file.   Modified  line  has  a
       mark `|'.  Example output from sdif is like this:

            1    deleted       <
            2    same             1    same
            3    changed       |  2    modified
            4    same             3    same
                               >  4    added


       Sdif has some incompatibilities with original sdiff.  Neg-
       ative incompatibility is a lack of -o option and expanding
       all tabs to spaces.  Other incompatibilities are:

            o line numbering
            o folding a long line
            o context diff support
            o unified diff support
            o option to keep diff mark
            o handle backspace and carriage return
            o default width is 80
            o rcs support
            o cdif (word context diff) support
            o read diff data from file or stdin

OPTIONS

       -w width
              Use  width  as  a width of output listing.  Default
              width is 80.  Original sdiff has  a  default  value
              130  but  nobody  uses  132  column line printer in
              these days.  If the standard error is to  a  termi-
              nal,  the width of that terminal is taken as a out-
              put width if possible.

       -l     Print only left column if the line is identical.
              diff  output  from file or stdin put this switch on
              automatically.

       -n     Print line number on each lines.

       -f     Fold the line if it is longer than printing  width.
              Folded  line is indicated by `+' mark at top of the
              line.  No continue mark is printed  when  numbering
              option is on.

       -F     Fold longs line at word boundaries.

       -m     Usually diff mark from diff output are trimmed off.
              This option forces to leave them on output listing.
              I prefer to use this option with -c.

       -rcs, -rrev
              Use rcsdiff instead of normal diff.  Option -rcs is
              not required when -rrev is supplied.

       -cdif  Use cdif command instead of normal diff command.

       -b, -w, -c, -u, -B
              Passed through to the back-end diff command.   Sdif
              can  process  the output from context diff (-c) and
              unified diff (-u) if those  are  available.   These
              are sometimes useful because you can get only modi-
              fied part of text.  Option -B  is  valid  only  for
              cdif.

              If  you  want  to  pass  a  option not listed here,
              please use -diff="cdif ..." option.

       -diff=command
              Any command can be specified as a diff  command  to
              be  used.  However piping output to sdif is usually
              easier unless you want to get whole text.

       -1, -2 Only old file is printed when option -1 is supplied
              and only new file with -2 option.  These are almost
              useless with normal diff because ``sdif -1 A B'' is
              equivalent  to  ``cat  A'',  but probably make some
              sense with -cdif option.

RELATED COMMANDS

       a2ps   is  a  command  which  converts   ascii   text   to
              postscript   program.   C  version  was  originally
              posted to  usenet  by  miguel@imag.imag.fr  (Miguel
              Santana).   I reimplemented it by perl and enhanced
              to use different font  family  for  overstruck  and
              underlined  characters.   This is a convenient tool
              to  print  the  output  from  sdif  to   postscript
              put and highlights deleted, changed and added  word
              on  modified  line.   It  uses overstiking to high-
              lighting.  Sdif  can  handle  there  sequence  cor-
              rectly.   Cdif  has  to  be  installed to use -cdif
              option with sdif.

       Next is a example that I'm using often.

            sdif -cdif -w180 file1 file2 | a2ps -w


       All of these programs can be ftp'ed from ftp.sra.co.jp  by
       anonymous   ftp   from  the  directory  pub/lang/perl/sra-
       scripts.

AUTHOR

       Kazumasa Utashiro <utashiro@iij.ad.jp>
       Internet Initiative Japan Inc.
       3-13 Kanda Nishiki-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 101, Japan

SEE ALSO

       perl(1), diff(1), cdif(1), a2ps(1)