bdiff(1)                                                           bdiff(1)




 NAME    [Toc]    [Back]
      bdiff - diff for large files

 SYNOPSIS    [Toc]    [Back]
      bdiff file1 file2 [n] [-s]

 DESCRIPTION    [Toc]    [Back]
      bdiff compares two files and produces output identical to what would
      be produced by diff (see diff(1)), specifying changes that must be
      made to make the files identical.  bdiff is designed for handling
      files that are too large for diff, but it can be used on files of any
      length.

      bdiff processes files as follows:

           +  Ignore lines common to the beginning of both files.

           +  Split the remainder of each file into n-line segments, then
              execute diff on corresponding segments.  The default value of
              n is 3500.

    Command-Line Arguments    [Toc]    [Back]
      bdiff recognizes the following command-line arguments:

           file1
           file2       Names of two files to be compared by bdiff.  If file1
                       or file2 (but not both) is -, standard input is used
                       instead.

           n           If a numeric value is present as the third argument,
                       the files are divided into n-line segments before
                       processing by diff.  Default value for n is 3500.
                       This option is useful when 3500-line segments are too
                       large for processing by diff.

           -s          Silent option suppresses diagnostic printing by
                       bdiff, but does not suppress possible error messages
                       from diff).  If the n and -s arguments are both used,
                       the n argument must precede the -s option on the
                       command line or it will not be properly recognized.

 EXTERNAL INFLUENCES    [Toc]    [Back]
    Environment Variables
      LC_MESSAGES determines the language in which messages are displayed.

      If LC_MESSAGES is not specified in the environment or is set to the
      empty string, the value of LANG is used as a default for each
      unspecified or empty variable.  If LANG is not specified or is set to
      the empty string, a default of "C" (see lang(5)) is used instead of
      LANG.




 Hewlett-Packard Company            - 1 -   HP-UX 11i Version 2: August 2003






 bdiff(1)                                                           bdiff(1)




      If any internationalization variable contains an invalid setting,
      bdiff behaves as if all internationalization variables are set to "C".
      See environ(5).

    International Code Set Support    [Toc]    [Back]
      Single- and multi-byte character code sets are supported.

 DIAGNOSTICS    [Toc]    [Back]
      both files standard input (bd2)
                Standard input was specified for both files.  Only one file
                can be specified as standard input.

      non-numeric limit (bd4)
                A non-numeric value was specified for the n (third)
                argument.

 EXAMPLES    [Toc]    [Back]
      Find differences between two large files: file1 and file2, and place
      the result in a new file named diffs_1.2.

           bdiff file1 file2 >diffs_1.2

      Do the same, but limit file length to 1400 lines; suppress error
      messages:

           bdiff file1 file2 1400 -s >diffs_1.2

 WARNINGS    [Toc]    [Back]
      bdiff produces output identical to output from diff, and makes the
      necessary line-number corrections so that the output looks like it was
      processed by diff.  However, depending on where the files are split,
      bdiff may or may not find a fully minimized set of file differences.

 FILES    [Toc]    [Back]
      /tmp/bd??????

 SEE ALSO    [Toc]    [Back]
      diff(1).


 Hewlett-Packard Company            - 2 -   HP-UX 11i Version 2: August 2003