osf1 man page for diff3

diff3(1)						      General Commands Manual							  diff3(1)

NAME
       diff3 - Compares three files

SYNOPSIS
       diff3 [-e  | -x	| -E  | -X  | -3] file1 file2 file3

       The diff3 command reads three versions of a file and writes to standard output the ranges of text that differ.

OPTIONS
       Creates an edit script for use with the ed command to incorporate into file1 all changes between file2 and file3 (that is, the changes that
       normally would be flagged ==== and ====3).  Produces an edit script to incorporate only changes flagged ====.  These are similar to -e  and
       -x,  respectively,  but treat overlapping changes (that is, changes that are flagged ==== in the normal listing) differently.  The overlap-
       ping lines from both files are inserted by the edit script, bracketed by <<<<<< and >>>>>> lines. The -E option is used	by  RCS  merge	to
       ensure  that overlapping changes in the merged files are preserved and brought to someone's attention.  Produces an edit script to incorpo-
       rate only changes flagged ====3.

DESCRIPTION
       The diff3 command reads three versions of a file and writes to standard output the ranges of text that differ, flagged with  the  following
       codes: All three files differ.  file1 differs.  file2 differs.  file3 differs.

       The  type of change needed to convert a given range of a given file to match another file is indicated in one of these two ways in the out-
       put: Text is to be added after line number number1 in file, where file is 1, 2, or 3.  Text in the range line number1 to line number2 is to
       be changed.  If number1 = number2, the range may be abbreviated to number1.

       The  original  contents of the range follow immediately after a c indication.  When the contents of two files are identical, diff3 does not
       show the contents of the lower-numbered file, although it shows the location of the identical lines for each.

NOTES
       Editing scripts produced by the -e option cannot create lines consisting only of a single . (dot).

EXAMPLES
       To list the differences among three files, enter: diff3	fruit.a  fruit.b  fruit.c

       fruit.a, fruit.b, and fruit.c contain the following data:

       fruit.a:

       banana grape kiwi lemon mango orange peach pare

       fruit.b:

       apple banana grapefruit kiwi orange peach pear

       fruit.c:

       grape grapefruit kiwi lemon mango orange peach pear

       The output from diff3 shows the differences between these files as follows. (The comments on the right do not appear in the output.)

       ====	All three files are different.	1:1,2c	      - Lines 1 and 2 of the first file, fruit.a
	 banana
	 grape 2:1,3c	     - Lines 1 through 3 of fruit.b
	 apple
	 banana
	 grapefruit 3:1,2c	  - Lines 1 and 2 of fruit.c
	 grape
	 grapefruit ====2    The second file, fruit.b, is different.  1:4,5c	    - Lines 4 and 5 are the same in  fruit.a  and  fruit.c.   2:4a
       3:4,5c	     - To make fruit.b look the same, add text after line 4.
	 lemon
	 mango ====1	The first file, fruit.a, is different.	1:8c
	 pare 2:7c	    - Line 7 of fruit.b and line 8 of fruit.c are the same.  3:8c
	 pear

FILES
       Helper program.

SEE ALSO
       Commands:  bdiff(1), cmp(1), comm(1), diff(1), ed(1)

																	  diff3(1)