bdiff(1)                                                              bdiff(1)


NAME
     bdiff - big diff

SYNOPSIS
     bdiff file1 file2 [ n ] [-s]

DESCRIPTION
     bdiff is used in a manner analogous to diff to find which lines in file1
     and file2 must be changed to bring the files into agreement.  Its purpose
     is to allow processing of files too large for diff.  If file1 (file2) is
     -, the standard input is read.

     Valid options to bdiff are:

     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, that this does not suppress possible
          diagnostic messages from diff, which bdiff calls.

     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 that because of the
     segmenting of the files, bdiff does not necessarily find a smallest
     sufficient set of file differences.

FILES
     /tmp/bd?????

SEE ALSO
     diff(1).


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