SYNOPSIS

       bdiff filename1 filename2 [n] [-s]

DESCRIPTION

       bdiff  is  used  in  a  manner analogous to diff to find which lines in
       filename1 and filename2 must be changed to bring the files into  agree-
       ment.   Its purpose is to allow processing of files too large for diff.
       If filename1 (filename2) is -, the standard input is read.

       bdiff ignores lines common to the beginning of both files,  splits  the
       remainder of each file into n-line segments, and invokes diff on corre-
       sponding 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: Because of the segment-
       ing of the files, bdiff does not necessarily find a smallest sufficient
       set of file differences.

       The options 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, this does not suppress possible diag-
              nostic messages from diff, which bdiff calls.

FILES

       /tmp/bd?????

SEE ALSO

       diff(1)

DIAGNOSTICS

       Use help(1) for explanations.



Heirloom Toolchest                  2/3/07                            BDIFF(1)