NAME
diff - print differences between two files
SYNOPSIS
diff [-c | -e | -C n] [-br]file1 file2
OPTIONS
-C n Produce output that contains n lines of context
-b Ignore white space when comparing
-c Produce output that contains three lines of context
-e Produce an ed-script to convert file1 into file2
-r Apply diff recursively to files and directories of the
same name, when file1 and file2 are both directories
EXAMPLES
diff file1 file2 # Print differences between 2 files
diff -C 0 file1 file2
# Same as above
diff -C 3 file1 file2
# Output three lines of context with
every difference encountered
diff -c file1 file2 # Same
diff /etc /dev # Compares recursively the directories
/etc and /dev
diff passwd /etc # Compares ./passwd to /etc/passwd
DESCRIPTION
Diff compares two files and generates a list of lines tel-
ling how the two files differ. Lines may not be longer than
128 characters. If the two arguments on the command line
are both directories, diff recursively steps through all
subdirectories comparing files of the same name. If a file
name is found only in one directory, a diagnostic message is
written to stdout. A file that is of either block special,
character special or FIFO special type, cannot be compared
to any other file. On the other hand, if there is one
directory and one file given on the command line, diff tries
to compare the file with the same name as file in the direc-
tory directory.
SEE ALSO
cdiff(1), cmp(1), comm(1), patch(1).