bdiff(1)						      General Commands Manual							  bdiff(1)

NAME

       bdiff - diff for large files

SYNOPSIS

       file1 file2 [n]

DESCRIPTION

       compares  two  files and produces output identical to what would be produced by (see diff(1)), specifying changes that must be made to make
       the files identical.  is designed for handling files that are too large for but it can be used on files of any length.

       processes files as follows:

	      o  Ignore lines common to the beginning of both files.

	      o  Split the remainder of each file into n-line segments, then execute on corresponding segments.  The default value of n is 3500.

   Command-Line Arguments
       recognizes the following command-line arguments:

	      file1
	      file2	  Names of two files to be compared by If file1 or file2 (but not both) is standard input is used instead.

	      n 	  If a numeric value is present as the third argument, the files are divided into n-line  segments  before  processing	by
			  Default value for n is 3500.	This option is useful when 3500-line segments are too large for processing by

	      Silent option suppresses diagnostic printing by
			  but does not suppress possible error messages from If the n and arguments are both used, the n argument must precede the
			  option on the command line or it will not be properly recognized.

EXTERNAL INFLUENCES

   Environment Variables
       determines the language in which messages are displayed.

       If is not specified in the environment or is set to the empty string, the value of is used as a default for each unspecified or empty vari-
       able.  If is not specified or is set to the empty string, a default of "C" (see lang(5)) is used instead of

       If  any	internationalization  variable	contains an invalid setting, behaves as if all internationalization variables are set to "C".  See
       environ(5).

   International Code Set Support
       Single- and multi-byte character code sets are supported.

DIAGNOSTICS

       Standard input was specified for both files.
		 Only one file can be specified as standard input.

       A non-numeric value was specified for the
		 n (third) argument.

EXAMPLES

       Find differences between two large files: and and place the result in a new file named

       Do the same, but limit file length to 1400 lines; suppress error messages:

WARNINGS

       produces output identical to output from and makes the necessary line-number corrections so that the output looks like it was processed	by
       However, depending on where the files are split, may or may not find a fully minimized set of file differences.

FILES

SEE ALSO

       diff(1).

																	  bdiff(1)