


      BDIFF(1)                    (UNIX 5.0)                   BDIFF(1)



      NAME
           bdiff - big diff

      SYNTAX
           bdiff file1 file2 [n] [-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.  Bdiff ignores lines common to
           the beginning of both files, splits the remainder of each
           file into n-line segments, and invokes diff 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,
           causing it to fail.  If file1 (file2) 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.  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).

      DIAGNOSTICS
           Use help(1) for explanations.
















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