bdiff(1)						      General Commands Manual							  bdiff(1)

NAME

       bdiff - Finds differences in large files

SYNOPSIS

       bdiff file1 file2 [number] [-s]

       bdiff - file2 [number] [-s]

       bdiff file1 - [number] [-s]

       The  bdiff command compares file1 and file2 and writes information about their differing lines to standard output.  If either filename is -
       (dash), bdiff reads standard input.

OPTIONS

       Suppresses error messages.  (May either precede or follow the number argument if it is specified.)

DESCRIPTION

       The bdiff command uses diff to find lines that must be changed in two files to make them identical (see the  diff  command).   Its  primary
       purpose is to permit processing of files that are too large for diff.

       The  bdiff  command ignores lines common to the beginning of both files, splits the remainders into sections of number lines, and runs diff
       on the sections.  The output is then processed to make it look as if diff had processed the files whole.

       If you do not specify number, a system default is used.	In some cases, the number you specify or the default number may be too	large  for
       diff.  If bdiff fails, specify a smaller value for number and try again.

       Note  that because of file segmenting, bdiff does not necessarily find the smallest possible set of file differences.  In general, although
       the output is similar, using bdiff is not the equivalent of using diff.

NOTES

       The diff command is executed by a child process, generated by forking, and communicates with bdiff through pipes.

       It should not normally be necessary to use this command, since diff can handle most large files.

EXIT STATUS

       No differences.	Differences found.  An error occurred.

SEE ALSO

       Commands:  diff(1), diff3(1)

																	  bdiff(1)