Linux "diff" Command Line Options and Examples

compare files line by line

Compare FILES line by line. Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.

Usage:

diff [OPTION]... FILES

Related Commands

Command Line Options:

--normal

output a normal diff (the default)


                            diff --normal ...

-q

report only when files differ


                            diff -q ...

-s

report when two files are the same


                            diff -s ...

-c

output NUM (default 3) lines of copied context


                            diff -c ...

-u

output NUM (default 3) lines of unified context


                            diff -u ...

-e

output an ed script


                            diff -e ...

-n

output an RCS format diff


                            diff -n ...

-y

output in two columns


                            diff -y ...

-W

output at most NUM (default 130) print columns


                            diff -W ...

--left-column

output only the left column of common lines


                            diff --left-column ...

--suppress-common-lines

do not output common lines


                            diff --suppress-common-lines ...

-p

show which C function each change is in


                            diff -p ...

-F

show the most recent line matching RE


                            diff -F ...

--label

use LABEL instead of file name and timestamp (can be repeated)


                            diff --label ...

-t

expand tabs to spaces in output


                            diff -t ...

-T

make tabs line up by prepending a tab


                            diff -T ...

--tabsize

tab stops every NUM (default 8) print columns


                            diff --tabsize ...

--suppress-blank-empty

suppress space or tab before empty output lines


                            diff --suppress-blank-empty ...

-l

pass output through 'pr' to paginate it


                            diff -l ...

-r

recursively compare any subdirectories found


                            diff -r ...

--no-dereference

don't follow symbolic links


                            diff --no-dereference ...

-N

treat absent files as empty


                            diff -N ...

--unidirectional-new-file

treat absent first files as empty


                            diff --unidirectional-new-file ...

--ignore-file-name-case

ignore case when comparing file names


                            diff --ignore-file-name-case ...

--no-ignore-file-name-case

consider case when comparing file names


                            diff --no-ignore-file-name-case ...

-x

exclude files that match PAT


                            diff -x ...

-X

exclude files that match any pattern in FILE


                            diff -X ...

-S

start with FILE when comparing directories


                            diff -S ...

--from-file

compare FILE1 to all operands; FILE1 can be a directory


                            diff --from-file ...

--to-file

compare all operands to FILE2; FILE2 can be a directory


                            diff --to-file ...

-i

ignore case differences in file contents


                            diff -i ...

-E

ignore changes due to tab expansion


                            diff -E ...

-Z

ignore white space at line end


                            diff -Z ...

-b

ignore changes in the amount of white space


                            diff -b ...

-w

ignore all white space


                            diff -w ...

-B

ignore changes where lines are all blank


                            diff -B ...

-I

ignore changes where all lines match RE


                            diff -I ...

-a

treat all files as text


                            diff -a ...

--strip-trailing-cr

strip trailing carriage return on input


                            diff --strip-trailing-cr ...

-D

output merged file with '#ifdef NAME' diffs


                            diff -D ...

--GTYPE-group-format

format GTYPE input groups with GFMT


                            diff --GTYPE-group-format ...

--line-format

format all input lines with LFMT


                            diff --line-format ...

--LTYPE-line-format

format LTYPE input lines with LFMTThese format options provide fine-grained control over the outputof diff, generalizing -D/--ifdef.LTYPE is 'old', 'new', or 'unchanged'.GTYPE is LTYPE or 'changed'.GFMT (only) may contain:%< lines from FILE1%> lines from FILE2%= lines common to FILE1 and FILE2%[-][WIDTH][.[PREC]]{doxX}LETTERprintf-style spec for LETTERLETTERs are as follows for new group, lower case for old group:F first line numberL last line numberN number of lines = L-F+1E F-1M L+1%(A=B?T:E)if A equals B then T else ELFMT (only) may contain:%L contents of line%l contents of line, excluding any trailing newline%[-][WIDTH][.[PREC]]{doxX}nprintf-style spec for input line numberBoth GFMT and LFMT may contain:%% %%c'C' the single character C%c'\OOO'the character with octal code OOOC the character C (other characters represent themselves)


                            diff --LTYPE-line-format ...

-d

try hard to find a smaller set of changes


                            diff -d ...

--horizon-lines

keep NUM lines of the common prefix and suffix


                            diff --horizon-lines ...

--speed-large-files

assume large files and many scattered small changes


                            diff --speed-large-files ...

--color[

colorize the output; WHEN can be 'never', 'always', or 'auto' (the default)


                            diff --color[ ...

--palette

the colors to use when --color is active; PALETTE is a colon-separated list of terminfo capabilities


                            diff --palette ...

--help

display this help and exit


                            diff --help ...

-v

output version information and exitFILES are 'FILE1 FILE2' or 'DIR1 DIR2' or 'DIR FILE' or 'FILE DIR'. If --from-file or --to-file is given, there are no restrictionson FILE(s). If a FILE is '-', read standard input. Exit status is 0 if inputs are the same, 1 if different, 2 if trouble.AUTHORWritten by Paul Eggert, Mike Haertel, David Hayes, Richard Stallman, and Len Tower.REPORTING BUGSReport bugs to: bug-diffutils@gnu.orgGNU diffutils home page: <http://www.gnu.org/software/diffutils/>General help using GNU software: <http://www.gnu.org/gethelp/>COPYRIGHTCopyright © 2017 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 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.


                            diff -v ...