Format diff output Post: 302409939

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Top Forums Shell Programming and Scripting Format diff output Post 302409939 by drl on Saturday 3rd of April 2010 07:29:22 AM

04-03-2010

Registered User

Hi.

There are several schemes to draw attention to the areas in lines which differ. One such is colordiff. Colorized text is not easy to paste in here, but the program can also do an interesting job by marking up the lines with subtractions and additions. For example:

Code:

#!/usr/bin/env bash

# @(#) s1	Demonstrate coloration of diff output.
# colordiff - a tool to colorize diff output

# Infrastructure details, environment, commands for forum posts. 
set +o nounset
LC_ALL=C ; LANG=C ; export LC_ALL LANG
echo ; echo "Environment: LC_ALL = $LC_ALL, LANG = $LANG"
echo "(Versions displayed with local utility \"version\")"
c=$( ps | grep $$ | awk '{print $NF}' )
version >/dev/null 2>&1 && s=$(_eat $0 $1) || s=""
[ "$c" = "$s" ] && p="$s" || p="$c"
version >/dev/null 2>&1 && version "=o" $p wdiff colordiff
set -o nounset
echo

echo " Samples of data files:"
specimen data1 data2 \
|| { head -5 $FILE ; echo " --" ; tail -5 $FILE; }

echo
echo " Results:"
wdiff -n data1 data2 |
colordiff

exit 0

producing:

Code:

% ./s1

Environment: LC_ALL = C, LANG = C
(Versions displayed with local utility "version")
OS, ker|rel, machine: Linux, 2.6.26-2-amd64, x86_64
Distribution        : Debian GNU/Linux 5.0 
GNU bash 3.2.39
GNU wdiff 0.5
colordiff diff (GNU diffutils) 2.8.1

 Samples of data files:
Whole: 5:0:5 of 7 lines in file "data1"
210	998877	phone	9981128209	add	111 nw st.
310	998877	usg	650	ex	11
310	998877	usg	850	ex	11
410	998877	web	1003		
210	998878	phone	9981128210	add	112 nw st.
310	998878	usg	750	ex	11
410	998878	web	930		

Whole: 5:0:5 of 7 lines in file "data2"
210	998877	phone	9981128209	add	111 nw st.
310	998877	usg	650	ex	11.00
310	998877	usg	750	ex	11
410	998877	web	1203		
210	998878	phone	9981128210	add	112 nw st.
310	998878	usg	750	ex	11
410	998878	web	850	

 Results:
210	998877	phone	9981128209	add	111 nw st.
310	998877	usg	650	ex	[-11-]	{+11.00+}
310	998877	usg	[-850-]	{+750+}	ex	11
410	998877	web	[-1003-]	{+1203+}		
210	998878	phone	9981128210	add	112 nw st.
310	998878	usg	750	ex	11
410	998878	web	[-930-]	{+850+}

Although not shown here, the surrounded strings are also colored on the display. The command can also run diff internally, but I did not find that display as useful as the one involving word-diff -- wdiff.

The colordiff was in the Debian repository I use, but you can also find it at ColorDiff for several flavors of *nix.

I think that Jeffrey Friedl wrote a perl code that high-lighted differences by inverting the display scheme for the parts of the strings that differed. However, I could not find that code with a quick Google. It may be in one of his books on regular expressions, Mastering Regular Expressions, Third Edition - O'Reilly Media

I'm sure that there are other solutions, likely found by searching with keywords such as high-lighting, differences, etc.

Best wishes ... cheers, drl

drl

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LEARN ABOUT CENTOS

wdiff

WDIFF(1)                                                           User Commands                                                          WDIFF(1)

NAME

       wdiff - display word differences between text files

SYNOPSIS

       wdiff [OPTION]... FILE1 FILE2
       wdiff -d [OPTION]... [FILE]

DESCRIPTION

       wdiff - Compares words in two files and report differences.

       Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.

       -C, --copyright
              display copyright then exit

       -1, --no-deleted
              inhibit output of deleted words

       -2, --no-inserted
              inhibit output of inserted words

       -3, --no-common
              inhibit output of common words

       -a, --auto-pager
              automatically calls a pager

       -d, --diff-input
              use single unified diff as input

       -h, --help
              display this help then exit

       -i, --ignore-case
              fold character case while comparing

       -l, --less-mode
              variation of printer mode for "less"

       -n, --avoid-wraps
              do not extend fields through newlines

       -p, --printer
              overstrike as for printers

       -s, --statistics
              say how many words deleted, inserted etc.

       -t, --terminal
              use termcap as for terminal displays

       -v, --version
              display program version then exit

       -w, --start-delete=STRING
              string to mark beginning of delete region

       -x, --end-delete=STRING
              string to mark end of delete region

       -y, --start-insert=STRING
              string to mark beginning of insert region

       -z, --end-insert=STRING
              string to mark end of insert region

COMPATIBILITY

       Some  options that used to provide some unique functionality are no longer recommended, but still recognized for the sake of backwards com-
       patibility.

       -K, --no-init-term
              Now synonymous to --terminal, which never initializes the terminal.

AUTHOR

       Written by Franc,ois Pinard <pinard@iro.umontreal.ca>.

REPORTING BUGS

       Report bugs to <wdiff-bugs@gnu.org>.

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright (C) 1992, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
       This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICU-
       LAR PURPOSE.

SEE ALSO

       The  full  documentation  for wdiff is maintained as a Texinfo manual.  If the info and wdiff programs are properly installed at your site,
       the command

              info wdiff

       should give you access to the complete manual.

wdiff 1.1.2                                                          May 2012                                                             WDIFF(1)

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