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)