man/man1/diff3.html man page

diff3 - find differences between three files

The diff3 command compares three files and outputs descriptions of their differences.

The files to compare are mine, older, and yours. At most one of these three file names may be -, corresponding to the standard input.

-a, --text|ascii: Treat all files as text and compare them line-by-line, even if they do not appear to be text.
-A, --show-all: Incorporate all unmerged changes from older to yours into mine, surrounding all overlapping changes with bracket lines.
-e, --ed: Generate an ed(1) script that incorporates all the changes from older to yours into mine.
-E, --show-overlap: Like --ed, except that overlapping changes are bracketed.
-L, --label=label: Use label instead of the file name.
-m, --merge: Apply the edit script to the first file and send the result to the standard output. Unlike piping the output from diff3 to ed, this works even for binary files and incomplete lines. --show-all is assumed if no edit script option is specified.
-T, --initial-tab: Make tabs line up by prepending a tab to the output.
-x, --overlap-only: Like --ed, except output only the overlapping changes.
-3, --easy-only: Like --ed, except output only the nonoverlapping changes.
-i, --compatibility: Generate w and q commands at the end of the ed(1) script for System V compatibility.
-v: Print the program version and exit.

cmp(1), comm(1), diff(1), ed(1), patch(1), sdiff(1)