NAME¶

zdiff - decompress and compare two files line by line

SYNOPSIS¶

zdiff [options] file1 [file2]

DESCRIPTION¶

zdiff compares two files and, if they differ, writes to standard output the differences line by line. A hyphen '-' used as a file argument means standard input. If any file given is compressed, its decompressed content is used. zdiff is a front end to the program diff and has the limitation that messages from diff refer to temporary file names instead of those specified.

The formats supported are bzip2, gzip, lzip, and xz.

zdiff compares file1 to file2. The standard input is used only if file1 or file2 refers to standard input. If file2 is omitted zdiff tries the following:

- If file1 is compressed, compares its decompressed contents with the corresponding uncompressed file (the name of file1 with the extension removed).

- If file1 is uncompressed, compares it with the decompressed contents of file1.[lz|bz2|gz|xz] (the first one that is found).

Exit status is 0 if inputs are identical, 1 if different, 2 if trouble. Some options only work if the diff program used supports them.

OPTIONS¶

-h, --help

display this help and exit

-V, --version

output version information and exit

-a, --text

treat all files as text

-b, --ignore-space-change

ignore changes in the amount of white space

-B, --ignore-blank-lines

ignore changes whose lines are all blank

-c

use the context output format

-C, --context=<n>

same as -c but use <n> lines of context

-d, --minimal

try hard to find a smaller set of changes

-E, --ignore-tab-expansion

ignore changes due to tab expansion

-i, --ignore-case

ignore case differences in file contents

-M, --format=<list>

process only the formats in <list>

-N, --no-rcfile

don't read runtime configuration file

-O, --force-format=[<f1>][,<f2>]

force the formats given (bz2, gz, lz, xz)

-p, --show-c-function

show which C function each change is in

-q, --brief

output only whether files differ

-s, --report-identical-files

report when two files are identical

-t, --expand-tabs

expand tabs to spaces in output

-T, --initial-tab

make tabs line up by prepending a tab

-u

use the unified output format

-U, --unified=<n>

same as -u but use <n> lines of context

-w, --ignore-all-space

ignore all white space

-W, --width=<n>

output at most <n> print columns

-y, --side-by-side

output in two columns

--bz2=<command>

set compressor and options for bzip2 format

--gz=<command>

set compressor and options for gzip format

--lz=<command>

set compressor and options for lzip format

--xz=<command>

set compressor and options for xz format

REPORTING BUGS¶

Report bugs to zutils-bug@nongnu.org
Zutils home page: http://www.nongnu.org/zutils/zutils.html

COPYRIGHT¶

Copyright © 2021 Antonio Diaz Diaz. License GPLv2+: GNU GPL version 2 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.