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2.2 Showing Differences Without Context

The "normal" diff output format shows each hunk of differences without any surrounding context. Sometimes such output is the clearest way to see how lines have changed, without the clutter of nearby unchanged lines (although you can get similar results with the context or unified formats by using 0 lines of context). However, this format is no longer widely used for sending out patches; for that purpose, the context format (see section 2.3.1 Context Format) and the unified format (see section 2.3.2 Unified Format) are superior. Normal format is the default for compatibility with older versions of diff and the POSIX standard. Use the --normal option to select this output format explicitly.