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WDIFF(1) WDIFF(1)
NAME
wdiff - display word differences between text files
SYNOPSIS
wdiff [ option ... ] old_file new_file
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (C) 1992 by the Free Software Foundation, Inc.
DESCRIPTION
wdiff compares two files, finding which words have been
deleted or added to old_file to get new_file. A word is
anything between whitespace. The output is collected and
used to produce an annotated copy of new_file on standard
output. Suitable annotations produce a nice display of
word differences between the original files.
wdiff will exit with a status of 0 if no differences were
found, a status of 1 if any differences were found, or a
status of 2 for any error.
Usually underlining is used to mark deleted text, while
bold or reverse video is used to mark inserted text; these
defaults may be over-ridden by command line options.
deleted text refers to text in old_file which is not in
new_file, while inserted text refers to text on new_file
which is not in old_file.
OPTIONS
--help Has the same effect as -h.
-h Print an informative help message describing the
options.
--version
Has the same effect as -v.
-v Print the version number of wdiff on the standard
error output.
--no-deleted
Has the same effect as -1.
-1 Avoid producing deleted words on the output. If
neither -1 or -2 is selected, the original right
margin may be exceeded for some lines.
--no-inserted
Has the same effect as 2.
GNU 1992/12/21 1
WDIFF(1) WDIFF(1)
-2 Avoid producing inserted words on the output. If
neither -1 or -2 is selected, the original right
margin may be exceeded for some lines.
--no-common
Has the same effect as -3.
-3 Avoid producing common words on the output. When
this option is not selected, common words and
whitespace are taken from new_file. When selected,
differences are separated from one another by lines
of dashes. Moreover, if this option is selected at
the same time as -1 or -2, then none of the output
will have any emphasis - i.e. no bold or underlin-
ing. Finally, if this option is not selected, but
both -1 and -2 are, then sections of common words
between differences are separated by lines of
dashes.
--statistics
Has the same effect as -s.
-s On completion, for each file, the total number of
words, the number of common words between the
files, the number of words deleted or inserted and
the number of words that have changed is output. (A
changed word is one that has been replaced or is
part of a replacement.) Except for the total num-
ber of words, all of the numbers are followed by a
percentage relative to the total number of words in
the file.
--auto-pager
Has the same effect as -a.
-a A pager is interposed whenever the wdiff output is
directed to the user's terminal. Without this
option, no pager will be called; the user is then
responsible for explicitly piping wdiff output into
a pager if required.
The pager is selected by the value of the PAGER
environment variable when wdiff is run. If PAGER
is not defined at run time, then a default pager,
selected at installation time, will be used
instead. A defined but empty value of PAGER means
no pager at all.
When a pager is interposed through the use of this
option, one of the options -l or -t is also
selected, depending on whether the string "less"
appears in the pager's name or not.
GNU 1992/12/21 2
WDIFF(1) WDIFF(1)
It is often useful to define wdiff as an alias for
wdiff -a. However, this "hides" the normal wdiff
behaviour. The default behaviour may be restored
simply by piping the output from wdiff through cat.
This dissociates the output from the user terminal.
--printer
Has the same effect as -p.
-p Use over-striking to emphasize parts of the output.
Each character of the deleted text is underlined by
writing an underscore _ first, then a backspace and
then the letter to be underlined. Each character
of the inserted text is emboldened by writing it
twice, with a backspace in between. This option is
not selected by default.
--less-mode
Has the same effect as -l.
-l Use over-striking to emphasize parts of output.
This option works as option -p, but also over-
strikes whitespace associated with inserted text.
less shows such whitespace using reverse video.
This option is not selected by default. However,
it is automatically turned on whenever wdiff
launches less. (See option -a.)
This option is commonly used in conjunction with
less:
wdiff -l old_file new_file | less
--terminal
Has the same effect as -t.
-t Force the production of termcap strings for empha-
sising parts of output, even if the standard output
is not associated with a terminal. The TERM envi-
ronment variable must contain the name of a valid
termcap entry. If the terminal description permits,
underlining is used for marking deleted text, while
bold or reverse video is used for marking inserted
text. This option is not selected by default.
However, it is automatically turned on whenever
wdiff launches a pager, and it is known that the
pager is not less. (See option -a.)
This option is commonly used when wdiff output is
not redirected, but sent directly to the user's
terminal, as in:
GNU 1992/12/21 3
WDIFF(1) WDIFF(1)
wdiff -t old_file new_file
A common kludge uses wdiff together with the pager
more, as in:
wdiff -t old_file new_file | more
However, some versions of more use termcap emphasis
for their own purposes, so strange interactions are
possible.
--start-delete argument
Has the same effect as -w.
-w argument
Use argument as the "start delete" string. This
string will be output prior to every sequence of
deleted text, to mark where it starts. By default,
no start delete string is used unless there is no
other means of distinguishing where such text
starts; in this case the default start delete
string is [-.
--end-delete argument
Has the same effect as -x.
-x argument
Use argument as the "end delete" string. This
string will be output after every sequence of
deleted text, to mark where it ends. By default,
no end delete string is used unless there is no
other means of distinguishing where such text ends;
in this case the default end delete string is -].
--start-insert argument
Has the same effect as -y.
-y argument
Use argument as the "start insert" string. This
string will be output prior to any sequence of
inserted text, to mark where it starts. By
default, no start insert string is used unless
there is no other means of distinguishing where
such text starts; in this case the default start
insert string is {+.
--end-insert argument
Has the same effect as -z.
GNU 1992/12/21 4
WDIFF(1) WDIFF(1)
-z argument
Use argument as the "end insert" string. This
string will be output after any sequence of
inserted text, to mark where it ends. By default,
no end insert string is used unless there is no
other means of distinguishing where such text ends;
in this case the default end insert string is +}.
--avoid-wraps
Has the same effect as -n.
-n Avoid spanning the end of line while showing
deleted or inserted text. Any single fragment of
deleted or inserted text spanning many lines will
be considered as being made up of many smaller
fragments not containing a newline. So deleted
text, for example, will have an end delete string
at the end of each line, just before the new line,
and a start delete string at the beginning of the
next line. A long paragraph of inserted text will
have each line bracketed between start insert and
end insert strings. This behaviour is not selected
by default.
Note that options -p, -t, and -[wxyz] are not mutually
exclusive. If you use a combination of them, you will
merely accumulate the effect of each. Option -l is a
variant of option -p.
EXAMPLES
The following command produces a copy of new_file, shifted
right one space to accommodate change bars since the last
revision, ignoring those changes coming only from para-
graph refilling. Any line with new or changed text will
get a | in column 1. However, deleted text is not shown
nor marked.
wdiff -1n old_file new_file | sed -e 's/^/ /;/{+/s/^
/|/;s/{+//g;s/+}//g'
BUGS
If you find a bug in wdiff, please send electronic mail to
pinard@iro.umontreal.ca. Include the version number,
which you can find by running wdiff --version. Include in
your message sufficient input to reproduce the problem and
also, the output you expected.
wdiff currently calls diff. wdiff would be quicker and
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WDIFF(1) WDIFF(1)
cleaner to implement if it were part of the diff suite of
programs.
Here are some (un-processed) suggestions:
- Make an MS-DOS port.
- Select by options exactly what is whitespace.
- Have a wpatch program. Hard to see a good way of
doing this.
IDENTIFICATION
Author: Francois Pinard, pinard@iro.umontreal.ca
Manual Page: Colin M. Brough, cmb@epcc.ed.ac.uk
Revision Number: 0.4; Release Date: 1992/12/21.
SEE ALSO
diff(1), less(1), cat(1), more(1), termcap(3).
GNU 1992/12/21 6
