IDIFF(1)

NAME
idiff - interactive diff

SYNOPSIS
idiff [-b] file1 path2

DESCRIPTION
idiff runs normal diff(1) on the two files, displays one chunk of difference at a time, and lets you choose between the old version, the new version, or a version custom-blended by you using $EDITOR.

file1 (which must be a text file) is considered the "old" file. obj2 (which may be a file or a directory, using the same rules as regular diff) is considered the "new" file.

idiff produces the selected pieces in the proper order in a file called idiff.out.

After each chunk is presented, idiff will prompt the user (with a `? ') for a command. The valid commands are:

< Take the ``from'' portion of the displayed chunk. This is the portion which was extracted from the first file specified.

> Take the ``to'' portion of the displayed chunk. This corresponds to that extracted from the second file specified.

e Invoke an editor on the chunk. The contents of shell variable EDITOR select the editor to be used. The default editor is Whatever is written out from ed will be placed into the final output.

q< Take all the rest of the '<' choices automatically. Think of this as ``quit from''.

q> Take all the rest of the '>' choices automatically. Think of this as ``quit to''.

! Pass the command buffer to the shell for processing.

All code that considers identical in both input files is automatically put into the output file.

The arguments are as follows:

-b  This option, if present, is simply passed on to the underlying diff(1) ..

FILES
The output is stored into a file named idiff.out.

SEE ALSO
diff(1)

HISTORY
idiff was published in 1984 in the book The UNIX Programming Environment.

This manual page by Ian Darwin.

AUTHORS
Brian Kernighan and Rob Pike, Bell Laboratories.

BUGS
It is not possible to pass any options to diff through idiff. Nor can you use `-' as a filename argument.