Options to sdiff

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Options to sdiff

The following is a summary of all of the options that GNU sdiff accepts. Each option has two equivalent names, one of which is a single letter preceded by '-', and the other of which is a long name preceded by '--'. Multiple single letter options (unless they take an argument) can be combined into a single command line argument. Long named options can be abbreviated to any unique prefix of their name.

'-a'
Treat all files as text and compare them line-by-line, even if they do not appear to be text. See Binary Files and Forcing Text Comparisons .

'-b'
Ignore changes in amount of whitespace. See Suppressing Differences in Blank and Tab Spacing.

'-B'
Ignore changes that just insert or delete blank lines. See Suppressing Differences in Blank Lines.

'-d'
Change the algorithm to perhaps find a smaller set of changes. This makes sdiff slower (sometimes much slower). See diff Performance Tradeoffs.

'-H'
Use heuristics to speed handling of large files that have numerous scattered small changes. See diff Performance Tradeoffs.

'--expand-tabs'
Expand tabs to spaces in the output, to preserve the alignment of tabs in the input files. See Preserving Tabstop Alignment.

'-i'
Ignore changes in case; consider uppercase and lowercase to be the same. See Suppressing Case Differences.

'-I regexp'
Ignore changes that just insert or delete lines that match regexp. See Suppressing Lines Matching a Regular Expression.

'--ignore-all-space'
Ignore white space when comparing lines. See Suppressing Differences in Blank and Tab Spacing.

'--ignore-blank-lines'
Ignore changes that just insert or delete blank lines. See Suppressing Differences in Blank Lines.

'--ignore-case'
Ignore changes in case; consider uppercase and lowercase to be the same. See Suppressing Case Differences.

'--ignore-matching-lines=regexp'
Ignore changes that just insert or delete lines that match regexp. See Suppressing Lines Matching a Regular Expression.

'--ignore-space-change'
Ignore changes in amount of whitespace. See Suppressing Differences in Blank and Tab Spacing.

'-l'
'--left-column'
Print only the left column of two common lines. See Controlling Side by Side Format.

'--minimal'
Change the algorithm to perhaps find a smaller set of changes. This makes sdiff slower (sometimes much slower). See diff Performance Tradeoffs.

'-o file'
'--output=file'
Put merged output into file. This option is required for merging.

'-s'
'--suppress-common-lines'
Do not print common lines. See Controlling Side by Side Format.

'--speed-large-files'
Use heuristics to speed handling of large files that have numerous scattered small changes. See diff Performance Tradeoffs.

'-t'
Expand tabs to spaces in the output, to preserve the alignment of tabs in the input files. See Preserving Tabstop Alignment.

'--text'
Treat all files as text and compare them line-by-line, even if they do not appear to be text. See Binary Files and Forcing Text Comparisons.

'-v'
'--version'
Output the version number of sdiff.

'-w columns'

'--width=columns'
Use an output width of columns. See Controlling Side by Side Format. Note that for historical reasons, this option is '-W' indiff,'-w' in sdiff.

'-W'
Ignore horizontal white space when comparing lines. See Suppressing Differences in Blank and Tab Spacing. Note that for historical reasons, this option is '-w' in diff,'-W' in sdiff.