sdiff(1) General Commands Manual sdiff(1)
NAME
sdiff - Compares two files and displays the differences in a side-by-side format
SYNOPSIS
sdiff [-l | -s] [-w number] [-o output_file] file1 file2
The sdiff command reads file1 and file2, uses diff to compare them, and writes the results to standard output in a side-by-side format.
OPTIONS
Displays only the left side when lines are identical. Creates a third file, output_file, by a controlled interactive line-by-line merging
of file1 and file2. The following subcommands govern the creation of this file: Adds the left side to output_file. Adds the right side to
output_file. Stops displaying identical lines. Begins displaying identical lines. Enters ed with the left side, the right side, both
sides, or an empty file, respectively.
Each time you exit from ed, sdiff writes the resulting edited file to the end of output_file. If you fail to save the changes
before exiting, sdiff writes the initial input to output_file. Exits the interactive session. Suppresses display of identical
lines. Sets the width of the output line to number (130 characters by default).
DESCRIPTION
The sdiff command displays each line of the two files with a series of spaces between them if the lines are identical, a < (left angle
bracket) in the field of spaces if the line only exists in file1, a > (right angle bracket) if the line only exists in file2, and a | (ver-
tical bar) for lines that are different.
When you specify the -o option, sdiff produces a third file by merging file1 and file2 according to your instructions.
Note that the sdiff command invokes the diff -b command to compare two input files. The -b option causes the diff command to ignore trail-
ing spaces, tab characters, and consider other strings of spaces as equal.
EXAMPLES
To print a comparison of two files, enter: sdiff chap1.bak chap1
This displays a side-by-side listing that compares each line of chap1.bak and chap1. To display only the lines that differ, enter:
sdiff -s -w 80 chap1.bak chap1
This displays the differences at the tty. The -w 80 sets page width to 80 columns. The -s option tells sdiff not to display lines
that are identical in both files. To selectively combine parts of two files, enter: sdiff -s -w 80 -o chap1.combo chap1.bak
chap1
This combines chap1.bak and chap1 into a new file called chap1.combo. For each group of differing lines, sdiff asks you which group
to keep or whether you want to edit them using ed.
SEE ALSO
Commands: diff(1), ed(1)
sdiff(1)