BDIFF(1)

NAME
bdiff - big diff

SYNOPSIS
bdiff name1 name2 [numarg] -s

DESCRIPTION
Bdiff is used in a manner analogous to diff (1) to find which lines must be changed in two files to bring them into agreement. Its purpose is to allow processing of files which are too large for diff (1). Bdiff ignores lines common to the beginning of both files, splits the remainder of each file into n -line segments, and invokes diff (1) upon corresponding 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 (1), causing it to fail. If name1 (name2 ) is ``-'', the standard input is read. The optional -s (``silent'') argument specifies that no diagnostics are to be printed by bdiff (note, however, that this does not suppress possible exclamations by diff (1)). If both optional arguments are specified, they must appear in the order indicated above.

The output of bdiff is exactly that of diff (1), 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)

DIAGNOSTICS
Use help (1) for explanations.