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Command: diff - print differences between two files
Syntax: diff [-c | -e | -C n] [-br]file1 file2
Flags: -C n Produce output that contains n lines of context
-b Ignore white space when comparing
-c Produce output that contains three lines of context
-e Produce an ed-script to convert file1 into file2
-r Apply diff recursively to files and directories of
the same name, when file1 and file2 are both directories"
Examples: diff file1 file2 # Print differences between 2 files
diff -C 0 file1 file2 # Same as above
diff -C 3 file1 file2 # Output three lines of context with
every
difference encountered"
diff -c file1 file2 # Same
diff /etc /dev # Compares recursively the
directories /etc and /dev
diff passwd /etc # Compares ./passwd to /etc/passwd
Diff compares two files and generates a list of lines telling how
the two files differ. Lines may not be longer than 128 characters. If
the two arguments on the command line are both directories, diff
recursively steps through all subdirectories comparing files of the same
name. If a file name is found only in one directory, a diagnostic
message is written to stdout. A file that is of either block special,
character special or FIFO special type, cannot be compared to any other
file. On the other hand, if there is one directory and one file given
on the command line, diff tries to compare the file with the same name
as file in the directory directory.