Info Catalog diffutils: Sample diff Input diffutils: Output Formats diffutils: Side by Side

diffutils: Context

 
 2.2 Showing Differences in Their Context
 ========================================
 
 Usually, when you are looking at the differences between files, you will
 also want to see the parts of the files near the lines that differ, to
 help you understand exactly what has changed.  These nearby parts of the
 files are called the "context".
 
    GNU 'diff' provides two output formats that show context around the
 differing lines: "context format" and "unified format".  It can
 optionally show in which function or section of the file the differing
 lines are found.
 
    If you are distributing new versions of files to other people in the
 form of 'diff' output, you should use one of the output formats that
 show context so that they can apply the diffs even if they have made
 small changes of their own to the files.  'patch' can apply the diffs in
 this case by searching in the files for the lines of context around the
 differing lines; if those lines are actually a few lines away from where
 the diff says they are, 'patch' can adjust the line numbers accordingly
 and still apply the diff correctly.  ⇒Imperfect, for more
 information on using 'patch' to apply imperfect diffs.
 

Menu

 
· Context Format  An output format that shows surrounding lines.
· Unified Format  A more compact output format that shows context.
· Sections        Showing which sections of the files differences are in.
· Alternate Names Showing alternate file names in context headers.
 

Info Catalog diffutils: Sample diff Input diffutils: Output Formats diffutils: Side by Side