NAME
vdiff - display line-by-line differences between versions of files
SYNOPSIS
vdiff [ diff-options ] [ -base path ] [ -P ] files ..
DESCRIPTION
vdiff is a differential comparator for file versions that are stored in
shapeTools object base, AtFS. The functionality of vdiff is very
similar to the diff command on your host. All options and switches that
are recognized by diff can also be specified for vdiff.
The arguments to vdiff can either be a single filename, or a pair of
version identifiers. If only a filename is specified, vdiff prints the
differences between the specified file and the most recent version of
this file that is stored in the AtFS object base. A file can be
compared to any stored version by specifying the version as first, and
the filename as second argument. If both arguments are version
identifiers, the difference between these two versions is printed.
Differences between files and versions can be printed in any style that
is supported by the local diff program.
Version identifiers consist of the filename, and a version number or
alias name for a version, enclosed in brackets. Example:
retrieve.c[4.22] or retrieve.c[Rel-4.1]
vdiff creates temporary copies of the versions that shall be compared,
invokes the diff command, and finally removes the temporary copies.
OPTIONS
-base path
If vdiff is told to produce a context diff, the filenames of the
compared objects are mangeled so that the specified path
replaces the path of the current directory in the full pathnames
appearing in the diff-header. This is useful to replace an
absolute pathname by a relative pathname and makes the produced
context-diff easier to digest for the patch program.
-P With the -P switch turned on, vdiff won’t give up if one of the
two objects that shall be compared does not exist. In this case
an empty object is substituted for the missing one, causing the
diff to be the complete contents of the existing object. This is
useful in situations when complex patches are produced that
upgrade one release of a software system to a new release, and
the system has structurally changed (i.e. new files have been
added to the system).
SEE ALSO
diff(1), vcat(1)
AUTHOR
Axel.Mahler@cs.tu-berlin.de