Comparing and Merging Files with GNU diff and patch

by David MacKenzie, Paul Eggert, and Richard Stallman

Paperback (6"x9"), 120 pages
Retail Price: $19.95 (£12.95 in UK)
ISBN: 0-9541617-5-0

Reviews

This book has received an extremely positive review in Linux User and Developer Magazine:

"Well packaged... the quality of information is excellent" --- Linux User and Developer Magazine (Issue 36, Feb 2004)

About the Book

This manual describes how to compare and merge files using GNU diff and patch.

It includes an extensive tutorial that guides the reader through all the options of the diff and patch commands. Later chapters cover powerful time-saving techniques such as automatic merging of divergent branches of a source tree.

This is a printed copy of the official GNU diffutils manual. It documents all the diffutils programs (diff, cmp, sdiff, diff3), plus GNU patch. The versions covered are the 2.8 release of GNU diffutils and 2.5 release of patch.

The authors of this manual are the original developers of the GNU diffutils programs.

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For each copy of this manual sold, $1 will be donated to the Free Software Foundation.

As of April 2008 the total amount donated to FSF is $2071, from the sale of this and other books.

This book is published under the GNU Free Documentation License.

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Electronic version

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Related Titles

The CVS manual - Version Management with CVS by Per Cederqvist et al. (ISBN 0-9541617-1-8)
The GNU Bash Reference Manual (revised for version 3.2) by C. Ramey, B. Fox (ISBN 0-9541617-7-7)
An Introduction to GCC by B. Gough (ISBN 0-9541617-9-3)
Valgrind 3.3 - Advanced Debugging and Profiling for GNU/Linux applications by J. Seward, N. Nethercote, J. Weidendorfer et al. (NEW)

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Overview
Comparison
Output Formats
Incomplete Lines
Comparing Directories
Adjusting Output
diff Performance
Comparing Three Files
diff3 Merging
Interactive Merging
Merging with patch
Making Patches
Invoking cmp
Invoking diff
Invoking diff3
Invoking patch
Invoking sdiff
Standards conformance
Projects
Copying This Manual
Index

Articles

GNU Diff and Patch Quiz - test your knowledge of diff and patch with our quiz!
Making and Applying Patches - a short introduction to GNU diff and patch