BDIFF(1) User Commands BDIFF(1)

NAME

bdiff - big diff

SYNOPSIS

bdiff filename1 filename2 [n] [-s]

DESCRIPTION

bdiff is used in a manner analogous to diff to find which lines in
filename1 and filename2 must be changed to bring the files into
agreement. Its purpose is to allow processing of files too large for
diff. If filename1 (filename2) is -, the standard input is read.


bdiff ignores lines common to the beginning of both files, splits the
remainder of each file into n-line segments, and invokes diff on
corresponding segments. If both optional arguments are specified, they
must appear in the order indicated above.


The output of bdiff is exactly that of diff, with line numbers adjusted
to account for the segmenting of the files (that is, to make it look as
if the files had been processed whole). Note: Because of the segmenting
of the files, bdiff does not necessarily find a smallest sufficient set
of file differences.

OPTIONS

n
The number of line segments. The value of n is 3500 by default. If
the optional third argument is given and it is numeric, it is used
as the value for n. This is useful in those cases in which
3500-line segments are too large for diff, causing it to fail.


-s
Specifies that no diagnostics are to be printed by bdiff (silent
option). Note: However, this does not suppress possible
diagnostic messages from diff, which bdiff calls.

USAGE

See largefile(7) for the description of the behavior of bdiff when
encountering files greater than or equal to 2 Gbyte ( 2^31 bytes).

FILES

/tmp/bd?????

ATTRIBUTES

See attributes(7) for descriptions of the following attributes:


+---------------+-----------------+
|ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
+---------------+-----------------+
|CSI | enabled |
+---------------+-----------------+

SEE ALSO

diff(1), attributes(7), largefile(7)

DIAGNOSTICS

Use help for explanations.


September 14, 1992 BDIFF(1)