GENDIFF(1)                                                    General Commands Manual                                                   GENDIFF(1)

NAME

       gendiff - utility to aid in error-free diff file generation

SYNOPSIS

       gendiff <directory> <diff-extension>

DESCRIPTION

       gendiff  is  a  rather  simple script which aids in generating a diff file from a single directory.  It takes a directory name and a "diff-
       extension" as its only arguments.  The diff extension should be a unique sequence of characters added to the end of all  original,  unmodi-
       fied files.  The output of the program is a diff file which may be applied with the patch program to recreate the changes.

       The  usual  sequence  of events for creating a diff is to create two identical directories, make changes in one directory, and then use the
       diff utility to create a list of differences between the two.  Using gendiff eliminates the need for the  extra,  original  and  unmodified
       directory copy.  Instead, only the individual files that are modified need to be saved.

       Before editing a file, copy the file, appending the extension you have chosen to the filename.  I.e. if you were going to edit somefile.cpp
       and have chosen the extension "fix", copy it to somefile.cpp.fix before editing it.  Then edit the first copy (somefile.cpp).

       After editing all the files you need to edit in this fashion, enter the directory one level above where your source code resides, and  then
       type

           $ gendiff somedirectory .fix > mydiff-fix.patch

       You should redirect the output to a file (as illustrated) unless you want to see the results on stdout.

SEE ALSO

       diff(1), patch(1)

AUTHOR

       Marc Ewing <marc@redhat.com>

4th Berkeley Distribution                                         Mon Jan 10 2000                                                       GENDIFF(1)