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<title>Comparing and Merging Files: Invoking diff3</title>

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<a name="Invoking-diff3"></a>
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<p>
Next: <a href="Invoking-patch.html#Invoking-patch" accesskey="n" rel="next">Invoking patch</a>, Previous: <a href="Invoking-diff.html#Invoking-diff" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Invoking diff</a>, Up: <a href="index.html#Top" accesskey="u" rel="up">Top</a> &nbsp; [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="Index.html#Index" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
</div>
<a name="Invoking-diff3-1"></a>
<h2 class="chapter">14 Invoking <code>diff3</code></h2>
<a name="index-invoking-diff3"></a>
<a name="index-diff3-invocation"></a>

<p>The <code>diff3</code> command compares three files and outputs descriptions
of their differences.  Its arguments are as follows:
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example">diff3 <var>options</var>&hellip; <var>mine</var> <var>older</var> <var>yours</var>
</pre></div>

<p>The files to compare are <var>mine</var>, <var>older</var>, and <var>yours</var>.
At most one of these three file names may be <samp>-</samp>,
which tells <code>diff3</code> to read the standard input for that file.
</p>
<p>An exit status of 0 means <code>diff3</code> was successful, 1 means some
conflicts were found, and 2 means trouble.
</p>
<table class="menu" border="0" cellspacing="0">
<tr><td align="left" valign="top">&bull; <a href="#diff3-Options" accesskey="1">diff3 Options</a>:</td><td>&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align="left" valign="top">Summary of options to <code>diff3</code>.
</td></tr>
</table>

<hr>
<a name="diff3-Options"></a>
<div class="header">
<p>
Up: <a href="#Invoking-diff3" accesskey="u" rel="up">Invoking diff3</a> &nbsp; [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="Index.html#Index" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
</div>
<a name="Options-to-diff3"></a>
<h3 class="section">14.1 Options to <code>diff3</code></h3>
<a name="index-diff3-options"></a>
<a name="index-options-for-diff3"></a>

<p>Below is a summary of all of the options that <acronym>GNU</acronym> <code>diff3</code>
accepts.  Multiple single letter options (unless they take an argument)
can be combined into a single command line argument.
</p>
<dl compact="compact">
<dt><samp>-a</samp></dt>
<dt><samp>--text</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Treat all files as text and compare them line-by-line, even if they
do not appear to be text.  See <a href="Comparison.html#Binary">Binary</a>.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp>-A</samp></dt>
<dt><samp>--show-all</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Incorporate all unmerged changes from <var>older</var> to <var>yours</var> into
<var>mine</var>, surrounding conflicts with bracket lines.
See <a href="diff3-Merging.html#Marking-Conflicts">Marking Conflicts</a>.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp>--diff-program=<var>program</var></samp></dt>
<dd><p>Use the compatible comparison program <var>program</var> to compare files
instead of <code>diff</code>.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp>-e</samp></dt>
<dt><samp>--ed</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Generate an <code>ed</code> script that incorporates all the changes from
<var>older</var> to <var>yours</var> into <var>mine</var>.  See <a href="diff3-Merging.html#Which-Changes">Which Changes</a>.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp>-E</samp></dt>
<dt><samp>--show-overlap</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Like <samp>-e</samp>, except bracket lines from overlapping changes&rsquo; first
and third files.
See <a href="diff3-Merging.html#Marking-Conflicts">Marking Conflicts</a>.
With <samp>-E</samp>, an overlapping change looks like this:
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example">&lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;&lt; <var>mine</var>
<span class="roman">lines from <var>mine</var></span>
=======
<span class="roman">lines from <var>yours</var></span>
&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt; <var>yours</var>
</pre></div>

</dd>
<dt><samp>--help</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Output a summary of usage and then exit.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp>-i</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Generate &lsquo;<samp>w</samp>&rsquo; and &lsquo;<samp>q</samp>&rsquo; commands at the end of the <code>ed</code>
script for System V compatibility.  This option must be combined with
one of the <samp>-AeExX3</samp> options, and may not be combined with <samp>-m</samp>.
See <a href="diff3-Merging.html#Saving-the-Changed-File">Saving the Changed File</a>.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp>--label=<var>label</var></samp></dt>
<dd><p>Use the label <var>label</var> for the brackets output by the <samp>-A</samp>,
<samp>-E</samp> and <samp>-X</samp> options.  This option may be given up to three
times, one for each input file.  The default labels are the names of
the input files.  Thus &lsquo;<samp>diff3 --label X --label Y --label Z -m A
B C</samp>&rsquo; acts like
&lsquo;<samp>diff3 -m A B C</samp>&rsquo;, except that the output looks like it came from
files named &lsquo;<samp>X</samp>&rsquo;, &lsquo;<samp>Y</samp>&rsquo; and &lsquo;<samp>Z</samp>&rsquo; rather than from files
named &lsquo;<samp>A</samp>&rsquo;, &lsquo;<samp>B</samp>&rsquo; and &lsquo;<samp>C</samp>&rsquo;.  See <a href="diff3-Merging.html#Marking-Conflicts">Marking Conflicts</a>.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp>-m</samp></dt>
<dt><samp>--merge</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Apply the edit script to the first file and send the result to standard
output.  Unlike piping the output from <code>diff3</code> to <code>ed</code>, this
works even for binary files and incomplete lines.  <samp>-A</samp> is assumed
if no edit script option is specified.  See <a href="diff3-Merging.html#Bypassing-ed">Bypassing ed</a>.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp>--strip-trailing-cr</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Strip any trailing carriage return at the end of an input line.
See <a href="Comparison.html#Binary">Binary</a>.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp>-T</samp></dt>
<dt><samp>--initial-tab</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Output a tab rather than two spaces before the text of a line in normal format.
This causes the alignment of tabs in the line to look normal.  See <a href="Adjusting-Output.html#Tabs">Tabs</a>.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp>-v</samp></dt>
<dt><samp>--version</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Output version information and then exit.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp>-x</samp></dt>
<dt><samp>--overlap-only</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Like <samp>-e</samp>, except output only the overlapping changes.
See <a href="diff3-Merging.html#Which-Changes">Which Changes</a>.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp>-X</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Like <samp>-E</samp>, except output only the overlapping changes.
In other words, like <samp>-x</samp>, except bracket changes as in <samp>-E</samp>.
See <a href="diff3-Merging.html#Marking-Conflicts">Marking Conflicts</a>.
</p>
</dd>
<dt><samp>-3</samp></dt>
<dt><samp>--easy-only</samp></dt>
<dd><p>Like <samp>-e</samp>, except output only the nonoverlapping changes.
See <a href="diff3-Merging.html#Which-Changes">Which Changes</a>.
</p></dd>
</dl>

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